English Critical Terms 



J.W. BRAY 



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A HISTORY 



OF 



ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 



BY 

J. W. BRAY, A.M. 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, JOHN B. STETSON UNIVERSITY. 



BOSTON, U.S.A.: 
I). C. HEATH AND COMPANY. 

1898. 



.37 



14.'?32 



Copyright, 1898, 
By J. W. Bray. 




TWO uOPtcS RcCcivEO^ 



PREFACE. 



THE purpose of the following work is to trace the 
changes of meaning which have taken place in 
the chief terms employed in English criticism. It is 
intended to be purely a study in criticism, and not to 
repeat information which can be obtained from an 
ordinary dictionary. The organizing idea of the work 
is found in the grouping of the terms in the Appendix. 
It is assumed that if the history of two or three of 
the most important terms of each group is given in 
full, the history of the synonymous and negative 
expressions will also have been given, at least as far 
as their critical and literary significance is concerned. 
Hence the secondary terms are given but scant notice, 
and their critical import is to be gathered mostly from 
the larger terms of their respective groups. 

The history of the unimportant terms is thus given 
only in outline. Extensive tables >'were constructed 
showing the first use and frequency of occurrence at 
different times with regard to each critical term. 
These tables have been employed very largely in de- 
termining the relative influence of the different critical 
terms, and they furnish the basis for many statements, 



VI PREFACE, 

the authority for which it has not been possible to 
present in the printed text. 

The present investigation grew out of class work in 
Criticism in the University of Chicago. It was found 
that the study of Criticism was vague and uncertain 
as long as the terms were left undefined, about which 
as central points the critical discussions usually turn. 
Prof. Wm. D. i\IacClintock suggested the present un- 
dertaking, and he has aided very materially in its 
prosecution. As completed, it represents more than 
three years of almost continuous labor. 

About fourteen hundred terms have been mentioned 
or defined in historical perspective, — terms all of 
which have been employed in applied criticism as a 
direct means of estimating literary work. The history 
of the changes of meaning in such terms bears the 
same relation to Rhetoric as practice does to theory ; 
and innumerable data are furnished in the present 
work for the historical study of Esthetics. Applied 
Criticism, in fact, is the common meeting ground for 
rhetorical theory and the sesthetic instincts ; the final 
test of the truthfulness and accuracy of the one, and 
of the genuineness and strength of the other. And 
this, which is true of Criticism in general, is especially 
true of those concentrated methods of criticism which 
find expression in the use of critical terms. 

Among the best critics of late, there is a decided 
tendency toward a more careful and discriminative 
use of critical terms. This is only saying that the 
study of literature has, to a certain extent at least. 



PREFACE. vii 

become aware of its own methods and assumptions. 
No one critic has ever made use of half the critical 
vocabulary which is here presented. Wrong construc- 
tions of meaning have been given to terms, and con- 
troversies have been waged with no real ground for 
disagreement. Much needless confusion would be 
avoided by placing in clear relief the historical se- 
quence of meanings which has taken place in the dif- 
ferent terms ; by remembering that any meaning once 
developed in a term tends to persist in some manner 
to the present; that though terms and words fade and 
pass away, principles abide and remain. And this 
represents the standpoint and purpose of the following 
work. 

J. W. B. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I. What is a Critical Term? 

BEFORE entering upon the history of the different 
critical terms, it will first be necessary to deter- 
mine as accurately as possible what a critical term is, 
by what formal signs or characteristics it may be rec- 
ognized, and what part it plays in the general process 
and methods of criticism. In order to do this, it may 
perhaps be best to begin w4th the most simple and 
typical use of a critical term, and then trace the modi- 
fication of this simple type into the most complex, 
intricate, and uncertain forms that occur in actual 
criticism. 

There are two elementary uses and forms of state- 
ment for critical terms. The most simple and typical 
form of statement occurs when the term is the unstudied 
expression of a spontaneous feeling, — a feeling which 
represents an assthetic appreciation of some unified por- 
tion of literary work. The critic, let us suppose, has 
just read the literary production. His mind passes over 
it swiftly in review again and again. Certain features 
of the composition tend to rise into prominence more 

1 



2 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

than others, — the language perhaps, the sentiment, the 
imagery, its truthfulness to actual life, — but these are 
quickly blended again into the general unified impression. 
The attention of the critic is wholly occupied with the 
literary work. It thoroughly arouses his sensibilities 
and feelings, which, by their inherent force, call for 
expression in language. Unconsciously as it were, 
the intense aesthetic feeling appropriates some word 
or phrase for its expression. A critical judgment is 
thus spontaneously formed. Some unified portion of 
literature is the subject, the appropriated word or 
phrase is the predicate of the critical judgment. The 
attention is centred upon the subject of the judg- 
ment ; the predicate, or critical term, is, so far as re- 
lates to the immediate experience, evolyed wholly out 
of the subject. 

In the second elementary use of a critical term, the 
attention is divided between the predicate and subject 
of the critical judgment. The discriminating and 
selective powers of the mind are brought into full 
play in determining the word or phrase by which to 
characterize the literary work. The literary work 
may have been quite as fully appreciated by the critic 
as in the former type of judgment. But the sesthetic 
feeling which it aroused has passed for the most part 
into the memory. Continual effort is required to 
recall it into the focus of attention. One critical term 
after another is suggested by it, or is brought to it 
for comparison ; and the one which is finally chosen, 
is usually felt to be more or less inadequate to indi- 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

cate the original feeling in its fulness. A relation of 
some kind is asserted to exist between the subject 
and the predicate of the critical judgment, but they 
are not identified with each other. They represent 
two experiences intellectually joined, and not a single 
experience blended into a close emotional unity. 

These two elementary uses of a critical term may 
be represented by the following forms of statement : 
I. This poem is sublime. 

n. This poem has sublimity. 
The first may be called the aesthetic type of critical 
judgment, the second, the scientific type. Under one 
of these two general types, all uses whatever of critical 
terms may be classified. 

In the scientific type of judgment, the predicate is 
not identified with the subject, is not taken up into it. 
A poem may have or contain a multitude of things 
which are of no literary significance whatever. One 
can never tell in this form of statement whether the 
predicate represents an essential or only an accidental 
trait of the literary work ; whether the subject or lit- 
erary work is characterized as a whole or only in some 
of its unimportant details. Hence the predicate can 
be regarded as a complete critical term only in so far 
as it conforms to the aesthetic type of a critical judg- 
ment, in so far as the characterizing word or phrase 
results immediately from the feeling aroused by some 
unified portion of literary work. 

On the other hand, the scientific type of judgment 
is an essential prerequisite for the development of the 



4 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

aesthetic type. It continually presents possibilities for 
the wider and yet wider activity of the aesthetic feel- 
ings and sensibilities, — possibilities a few of which 
are appropriated and made use of, but many of which 
are not. The primitive aesthetic predicate is a mere 
exclamation of satisfaction and approval. It is the 
discriminating influence of the scientific method of 
judgment that causes this primitive critical term to 
become differentiated into all the subtle distinctions 
which critical terms now possess. The two types of 
critical judgment are thus complementary and indis- 
pensable to each other. The predicate of the scientific 
type possesses relative critical significance, but it is 
to the predicate of the aesthetic type of judgment that 
one must look for the most representative use of a 
critical term. 

The great body of actual criticism, however, does 
not conform exactly to either of these types of judg- 
ment. Terms are scarcely ever, if at all, purely aesthetic 
in their significance, and the predicate of the scientific 
form of judgment is always more or less identified with 
the subject, and thus has, to that extent, the full force 
of a critical term. It is only within the present cen- 
tury that these two types of critical judgment have in 
theory been distinguished from each other, and have 
been assumed as the bases for distinct systems of criti- 
cism. The types given are ideal forms, by means of 
which it will now be necessary to explain the complex 
forms of actual criticism. 

The simplest variation of the ideal forms arises from 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

the grammatical modification of the copula, from the 
different methods employed in connecting the subject 
with the predicate of the critical judgment. Of the 
aesthetic type of judgment, the chief grammiatical vari- 
ation consists in the omission of the copula, and the 
placing of the characterizing word or phrase as an 
immediate adjective modifier of the subject. E. g,\ — 

Eloquent and stirring passages. T. Arnold, Man. of Eng. Lit., 
p. 2^8. 

There are many grammatical variations of the scientific 
type of judgment. In all instances alike, however, a 
preposition intervenes between the subject and the 
predicate in such a manner as to make them be iden- 
tified with each other only in part. E. g,\ — 

The easy vigour o/* Horace. J. TTaetox, II., p. 259. 

Shakespeare hatti . . , deformed his best plays with prodigious 

incongruities. Hukd, L. p. 69. 
There is great picturesque humour id the following lines. T. 

Wartox, H. E. P, p. 187. 
The Taming of the Shrew is . . . full of bustle, animation, and 

rapidity of action. Hazlitt. Shak., p. 219. 

Such grammatical modifications of the types, however, 
do not really complicate the use nor render difficult 
the recognition of critical terms. They are little more 
than paraphrases which easily reduce to the simple 
types. But they do give evidence of the intimate re- 
lation which exists between the two types, and indicate 
how these types blend imperceptibly into each other. 
The real complication in the use of critical terms 
arises from the influence of two tendencies, — from the 
tendency to analyze, and from the tendency to use 



6 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

figurative language. Analysis is characteristic of the 
scientific type of judgment, figurative language of the 
esthetic type. 

The analytic tendency manifests itself primarily in 
the subject of the critical judgment. The possible 
predicates, which have been discriminated and rejected, 
do not appear in the predicate of the completed judg- 
ment. In the subject, on the other hand, the literary 
work, or some portion of it, considered in its unity, 
furnishes a standard of reference by which the extent 
of the analysis can easily be determined. This differ- 
entiation of the subject may be roughly classed as of 
four general kinds. 

One of the most common subjects of the critical 
judgment in actual criticism consists of the language 
or of some feature of the mechanical construction of 
the composition. This often represents the most ex- 
treme analytic tendency in criticism ; though, on the 
other hand, many of the most purely aesthetic terms 
have taken their rise from this very source. JE. g, : — 

Vida's versification is often hard and spondaic. Hallam, Lit. 
Hist., I., p. 437. 

Often, also, some characteristic of the literary pro- 
duction, some predicate of a former critical judgment, 
is assumed as an establislied fact, and is made the 
subject of a new judgment. This may occur with or 
without the connecting copula. E, g. : — 

HimpUcity in Burns is never stale and nnprofitable. Landor, IV., 

p. 54. 
Classically correct. Wilson, V., p. 357- 



INTRODUCTION, 7 

Frequently, as the exact opposite to the language 
and mechanical construction of the composition, the 
thought or sentiment expressed is made the subject of 
the critical judgment. This and the preceding class 
of subjects are intimately related to each other. E, g, : 

A certain iutenseuess in the setitiment. Hazlitt, Age of EHza- 

betli, p. 177. 
Rumoicr, tliougli not of the most delicate kind. Cai^ifbell, p. 15. 

The fourth class of analytic subjects represents an 
extremely slight analysis and abstraction of the aesthetic 
feeling. The subject is almost identical with the uni- 
fied impression of the literary production. The unified 
impression, however, is not an immediate impression. 
It has passed into the memory and is represented by 
some such word as ^'air," ^'manner," ''tone," '^ strain," 
or " style." E.g,\ — 

Massinger's dialogues subside in the proper places to a refreshing 
conversational tone. Lowell, Old Eng. Poets, p. 122. 

All such division or abstraction of the subject reacts 
upon the predicate. It is always possible to apply 
many epitliets to the special features or traits of a 
literary work which would not naturally be employed 
to characterize the literary worlv as a whole. In the 
scientific method of judgment, characterizing words 
and phrases are thus brought into the predicate which 
possess little critical significance, and in this method 
of judgment all predicated characteristics are incom- 
plete critical terms to the extent that the subject is 
but a partial representation of literary work consid- 
ered in its completeness and unity. 



8 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The modification of the ideal forms of statement 
from the tendency to use figurative language is seen 
in both the predicate and subject of the critical judg- 
ment. The modifying influence of figurative language 
in the predicate may be said to exert itself in four 
ways. By far the most usual method consists in the 
use of synonymous and heightened expressions in con- 
nection with critical terms already well established 
and familiar. The critical significance of the old term 
is brought into prominence by the unexpected newness 
of the reinforcing term. Often there is merely a fringe 
of novelty given to the familiar conception, often there 
is a decided extension of its meaning. The desire for 
the rhetorical variation of the well-known critical term 
has become a mania with a few recent critics, whose 
skill in accomplishing this result has rendered neces- 
sary the mention in the present volume of several hun- 
dred such figurative and sporadic critical terms. E.g.\ — 

There is a profusion in Cliilde Harold which must appear mere 
wastefulness to more economical writers. Jeffrey, II., p. 456. 

There are indeed portions of the Faerj Queen which are not vital, 
which are, so to speak, excrementitious, Dowden, Tr. and 
Studies, p. 287. 

Often some conception which is familiar in ordinary 
life is transferred by a bold figure of speech into the 
predicate of a critical judgment, with little or no inter- 
vention or support from a critical term already well 
established. E. g.\ — 

Jeremy Taylor's style is prismatic. It unfolds the colours of the 
rainbow. Hazlitt, Elizabethan Lit., p. 233. 



INTRODUCTION, 9 

Another source of figurative variation in the predi- 
cate arises from the transference into criticism of 
conceptions winch have a more immediate aesthetic 
significance than those just mentioned. Any effect, 
however partial or accidental, which the literary work 
produces upon the mind of the reader is made the 
predicate of the critical judgment, and thus seems to 
refer directly to the literary work itself. This it can 
do only in so far as it has become well established as 
a critical term, as it has been employed again and 
again as a means of characterizing literary work, as 
the original figure of speech has died out of the term, 
and it has ceased to be thought of merely as a personal 
state of feeling. ^. ^. : — 

Cloying perhaps in the urdformity of its beauty. Jeipeey, III., 
p. 136. 

Occasionally the figurative variation consists in bring- 
ing by analogy into criticism terms which in the arts 
related to literature are already well established. During 
the eighteenth century, the terms thus appropriated by 
literary criticism came chiefly from the art of painting, 
during the present century from the art of music. H. g. : — 

Mr. Philipps has two lines which seem to me what the Erench call 
very picturesque. 

All hid ill snow, in bright confusion lie. 
And with one dazzling waste confuse the eye. 

Pope, YI, p. 17S. 

In the subject of the critical judgment, the figurative 
tendency assumes the form of a more or less direct 
personification. The author himself is substituted for 



10 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

his literary productions. This substitution is often 
merely formal, the name of the author being only an 
abbreviated and enlivened method of indicating his 
complete literary work. But the force of the figure 
soon makes itself manifest in the predicate. With the 
author as subject, instead of the literary production, 
the predicate also becomes more figurative and enliv- 
ened. Personal characteristics are predicated of the 
subject rather than literary characteristics. This sub- 
stitution of the author for the literary work lias been 
greatly increased by the psychological and realistic 
spirit of the present century. A complete explanation 
of the author's mental characteristics, it is assumed, 
will explain the literary work also. Moreover, an 
intensely realistic spirit is repelled by the original 
figure of speech in the statement that '^This poem is 
sublime." The sublimity ascribed directly to the poem, 
it is recognized, is really derived from sources outside 
the poem, — most immediately, perhaps, from the mind 
of the author. In the criticism of the drama and the 
novel, the discussion of the '- characters " leads to the 
same confusion between personal and literary charac- 
teristics, and thus renders the critical significance of 
the predicated qualities vague and uncertain. U, g, : 

His tone is manly and geiitlemanhj . Whipple, Character and Cliar. 

Men, p. 89. 
Madame de Staid had more vehemence than trnth, and more heat 

than light. (Quoted from Joubert.) M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., 

p. 270. 

Thus in the typical forms of critical judgment, the 
predicate refers directly to the subject or literary work, 



INTRODUCriON, 11 

from which its meaning is almost wholly derived. But 
in actual criticism, terms are continually brought into 
the predicate of the judgment, representing conceptions 
which are well known in ordinary life, but are not usu- 
ally regarded as having any literary significance. The 
predicate of the judgment thus receives constant modi- 
fication from influences that lie beyond the immediate 
province of literary art, — from the personal traits of 
the author; from effects produced in the mind of the 
reader ; from conceptions familiar in ordinary life ; and 
from terms brought over by analogy from the related 
arts. 

These influences continually furnish material for the 
critical judgment and give to it its ultimate meaning. 
In a very large portion of actual criticism, no overt 
critical judgment is expressed. These surrounding 
influences of the literary work are dwelt upon and 
analyzed. The literary production is discussed in its 
relation to the author, to the reader, to the environ- 
ment in general, and to other arts, but none of its 
definite characteristics are given. But behind all this 
personal reminiscence, paraphrase, and mere explana- 
tion, there is always assumed a critical judgment, 
which can often be detected and more or less definitely 
stated. Of these assumed critical judgments, which 
make no use of critical terms, the following examples 
may be given : — 

I. Personal characteristics of the author. E. g.\ — 

Dryden had strong reason ratber than quick sensibility. S. Jonx- 
SON, YII., p. 339. 



12 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

II. Effects upon the mind of the reader. JE. g.: — 

Neither the iiiner recesses of thought nor the high places of art 
thrill to his appeal. Rossetti, Lives of E. P., p. 234. 

III. The general environment of the hterary work. 

Now the same soil that produced Bacon and Hooker produced 
Shakespeare. Dowden, Shak., etc., p. 23. 

lY. Comparison of different art effects without any 
definite standard of comparison. U. g, : — 

The effect of Virgil's poetry is like that of some laborious mosaic of 
many years' putting together. Caelyle, Hist, of Lit., p. 53. 

It is evident that such statements are composed of 
explanations, analyses, and discussions preparatory to 
criticism, and can in no sense of the word be consid- 
ered as criticism proper. 

In real criticism, the critic as a critic must deal at 
first hand with the literary production considered as a 
literary production. He will explain and analyze, but 
this only as preliminary to the characterization of the 
literary work under discussion. The characterizing 
words and phrases are always critical terms. Words 
which are repeatedly employed in the characterization 
of literature, which are persistently placed as predicate 
of the typical critical judgment, acquire a meaning 
which is more or less peculiar to their use in criticism. 
Such only are really critical terms, and the number 
of such words is relatively very small. The history 
of the figurative and sporadic terms belongs to the 
general dictionary of the language rather than to the 
vocabulary of criticism. But in order to present not 



INTR OD UCTION, 1 3 

only the real, but also the possible critical vocabulary, 
these figurative terms have, in the following Avork, 
received a brief mention also. 

II. General Historical Tendencies and Movements 
IN Critical Terms. 

There are certain broad lines of development or 
principles of differentiation, common to critical terms, 
which, to avoid constant repetition in the text, it will 
be necessary to state in the present connection. These 
principles are for the mosc part independent of each 
other. They are both logical and historical, and can 
perhaps be best represented by occasionally referring 
to the ideal form of judgment given in the preceding 
section. 

It is a truism in logic that the predicate of oue 
judgment is taken up into the subject of the next 
judgment. This augmentation or growth of content 
in the subject of judgment takes place in the history 
of critical terms, but the growth of content or meaning 
in the subject is less rapid than in the case of the 
individual judgment. Every term which persists as 
the predicate of a typical critical judgment, which has 
thus really come to be a critical term, not only tends 
to pass into the subject, but also to organize, to system- 
atize other terms which may be used in the predicate. 
The well-established term will be used synonymously 
with other terms, or in contrast with them, or still 
more often they will be placed as subordinate to it. 
Often a strong organizing or schematizing influence is 



14 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

exerted over the more specific critical terms by some 
general expression which is itself very little employed 
as an active critical term. Such was the term " Gothic" 
previous to the middle of the eighteenth century, and 
such are the terms " romantic " and " classical " in the 
present century. 

A general term or expression, in so far as it organ- 
izes and classifies the more specific terms of the predi- 
cate, tends to become an integral part of the subject, 
to enlarge or enrich the conception of literary compo- 
sition itself, and perhaps to designate more or less 
distinctly a class or species or general division of lit- 
erature. All classifying terms are also schematizing 
terms, but the opposite is not true to an equal extent. 
The term " Gothic," until the middle of the eighteenth 
century, though exerting a strong schematizing influ- 
ence over the active and specific terms of criticism, 
was not regarded as in any sense representing an 
integral part of real literature. JE, g.: — 

One may look upon Shakespeare's works in comparison of those 
that are more finished and regular, as upon an ancient majestic 
piece of Gothic architecture, compared with a neat modern build- 
ing ; the latter is more elegant and glaring, but the former is 
more strong and more solemn^ Pope. X., p. 549. 

All well-established critical terms tend ir_ this man- 
ner to become classifying terms. This is true of the 
criticism of individual authors and of literature in gen- 
eral. Sublimity is an integral portion of our concep- 
tion of Milton's works, and we look for more definite 
characterization. In the present century it is always 



INTRODUCTION, 15 

assumed that any and every literary composition must 
in some manner be true to actual life. To portray the 
specific manner in which this truthfulness is mani- 
fested is the problem for criticism. Truth to real life 
is a part of our conception of literature itself. 

All classifying terms, however, were not thus origi- 
nally derived from the predicate of the critical judg- 
ment. Those terms which most persistently represent 
a class or species of literature, — such as dramatic, 
lyrical, and epic, — have without exception appeared 
in the subject first, have uniformly indicated at first 
the external circumstances under which literature was 
produced, or the mechanical forms which it assumed, 
and possessed no real literary significance whatever. 

Whether thus mechanically derived, or whether taken 
up into the subject from the predicate, any classifying 
term, in so far as it becomes established firmly and 
beyond all question, possesses little or no immediate 
critical significance. Lyric poetry is simply lyrical, 
being neither worse nor better for the fact. But there 
are three influences which operate continually to bring 
these established classifying terms into touch with ac- 
tive critical terms. In the first place, the more firmly 
fixed the classifying word is, the greater is its sche- 
matizing influence over other critical terms. The 
poem is not merely lyrical, dramatic or classical, but 
it has " lyric sweetness," '^ dramatic vigor," or '' clas- 
sical purity of expression." In the second place, the 
different classes or species of literature are usually 
held by the critics in relatively higher or lower esteem. 



16 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

and this gives a certain amount of critical significance 
to the terms by which the different classes or species 
are designated. E, g,\ — 

Tasso confesses liiinself too li/rical^ beneath the dignity of heroic 
verse. Dryden, XIII., p. 15. 

Some kinds of poetry are in themselves lower kinds than others. 
The baUad kind is a lower kind. The didactic kind, still more, 
is a lower kind. M. Atinold, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 139. 

In the third place, however rigidly any class or species 
of literature may be defined in theory, there continu- 
ally arises the practical need for deciding under what 
species or division new or unnoted features of litera- 
ture are to be classified. In making this classification, 
the theoretical definition of the classifying term is usu- 
ally modified and its critical significance brought more 
or less into the foreground of attention. In this manner 
the term ''lyrical," representing at first any passionate 
or "pathetic" strain of song, — in opposition to epic 
and dramatic action, — has, from the great increase 
of subjective literature in the present century, under- 
gone a complete transformation of meaning. 

In determining the meaning of a critical term, it is 
necessary constantly to distinguish between theoretical 
and applied criticism. Terms are sometimes applied 
directly to literature, and sometimes they are merely 
theoretically defined and explained. Nor can the 
theory of a term at any given period of time be taken 
by any means as a sure index to its actual use in ap- 
plied criticism. Even in the same author, theory and 
practice are often quite at variance witli each other. 
E..J.:- 



IX TR OB UCTION. 17 

The sum of all that is merely objective we will hencefortli call 
nature^ con-fiiiing the term to its passive aud material sense, as 
comprising all the phenomena by which its existence is made 
known to us. Coleeidge, III., p. 335. 

The wonderful twihght of the mind I and mark Cervantes's courage 
in daring to present it, and trust to a distant posterity for an 
appreciation of its truth to naiure, Coleeidge. IV., p. 27i. 

Theoretical criticism represents the full analytic con- 
sciousness, which exists at any time, of the influences 
entering into the formation of the typical critical judg- 
ment. But in the typical judgment itself, tliis analytic 
consciousness is not immediately present so much as 
the esthetic feeling for the literary work which forms 
the subject of the judgment. This aisthetic feeling, 
and the general conception of literature which accom- 
panies it, ultimately controls and sets the limits to 
the analysis and theoretical discussion of critical terms 
and principles. Hence the direct application of a term 
to literature is the final criterion for its meaning at 
any given period of its history. 

But, on the other hand, the theory of a term often 
reacts upon its actual application to literature in no 
uncertain manner. The interaction between theoretical 
and applied criticism is intimate and mutual, and may 
be said to take pjlace in three ways : First. A critic's 
theory of a term may for the most part control his 
applied use of it : but no theory, in so far as it is mere 
theory, will be copied by other critics. Thus Leigh 
Hunt defined passion as a form of suffering, and Moul- 
ton defines it as a form of literary sympathy or appre- 
ciation. The latter critic follows up his definition by 



18 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

an extended application of the term to literature, but 
in the great body of critical usage the term is uni- 
formly connected with the more active and impulsive 
part of our nature. Second^ The theory of a term and 
its applied use are often made exactly, and at the same 
time conditionally, equivalent to each other, the theory 
of the term, based upon current usage, being stated 
definitely and explicitly as an immediate preliminary 
to its use in the characterization of literature. This 
method of criticism has been coming more and more 
into use since the middle of the eighteenth century. 
U.g.: — 

The Erench writers declare that the English writers are generally 
incorrect. If correctness implies an absence of petty faults, this 
perhaps may be granted ; if it means a jnster economy in fables, 
the notion is groundless and absurd. J. Waeton, 1., p. 196. 

Thirds The theory of a term is sometimes derived from 
an applied use of it which has since become obsolete. 
This corresponds to the retrospective stage of a term's 
history, and will be spoken of later. 

The theory of a term may thus usually be regarded 
as an approximate statement of the meaning which the 
term possesses when actually applied to literature ; but 
the theory must always be held in question by the facts 
upon which it is based. The living use of a term is 
the only real key to its meaning. It must be derived 
chiefly from the growing aesthetic sense of what literary 
art is, rather than from the more or less mechanical 
analysis of what literary art and criticism have been 
and might be. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

A critical term may be theoretically defined in two 
general ways. Its meaning may be derived from the 
literary composition considered as a completed product, 
or it may be derived from the mental activities of the 
author or reader, which are brought into play in the 
production and appreciation of the literary composi- 
tion. The definition and classification of all the known 
critical terms and principles with reference to the 
completed composition is ideal rhetoric ; the same 
definition and classification with reference to the 
mind of the author or reader is ideal aesthetic. There 
has been a decided change in English criticism from 
the rhetorical to the aesthetic or psychological stand- 
point. This change has manifested itself in two ways: 
In the first place, there has been a gradual elimination 
of technical expressions from general criticism. Until 
within the eighteenth century, the chief terms employed 
in criticism represented for the most part principles of 
language, or the more or less mechanical features of a 
composition. Most of these terms were derived from 
ancient rhetoric, and their meaning was very largely 
determined by the rules which the rhetoricians them- 
selves had laid down. By continually referring to cer- 
tain fixed traits of a composition, the terms became 
isolated to a great extent from their ordinary use in 
speech, and there was often required for their compre- 
hension an extensive technical knowledge of rhetoric 
and criticism. In 1700 there were some three hundred 
critical terms in general use, about half of which were 
of this technical nature, — such terms as purity., correct- 



20 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

ness^ proportion^ decency^ imitation^ characters^ manners, 
and sentiments. 

But when literature is viewed as to its content rather 
than as to its form, its relations to actual life become 
too intimate to allow of such a technical isolation of 
meaning in critical terms. In English criticism, tech- 
nical terms have constantly been paraphrased, ex- 
plained, and illustrated by more popular expressions, 
by which they have been gradually superseded, or to 
which their meaning has been made gradually to con- 
form. These popular expressions may be merely 
explanatory, figurative, and sporadic. But quite as 
often, they indicate a change of interest in criticism 
from the composition considered as a completed prod- 
uct to the mental powers by means of which the com- 
position is called forth and appreciated. There have 
consequently appeared in modern criticism a multitude 
of psychological and assthetic terms, whose meaning 
each person can determine in great measure for him- 
self, by an introspective movement of his own mind. 
Of the fifteen hundred terms which constitute the pres- 
ent vocabulary of criticism, perhaps three fourths are 
distinctively of this psychological nature. 

In the second place, the change from the rhetorical 
to the aesthetic or psychological standpoint is seen in 
the greatly increased emphasis which in criticism has 
come to- be placed upon the progressive tendencies in 
literature. Any completed product, in so far as it is 
regarded merely as a completed product, as external, 
and disconnected with the mind producing it, is always 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

thought capable of being reduced to fixed rules and 
methods. Rhetoric, whose primary concern consists 
in analyzing and classifying the characteristics of the 
completed composition, tends to set up rules which 
have all the rigid uniformity of a mechanical law rather 
than the progressive movement of a developing prin- 
ciple. Hence rhetorical terms and principles look to 
the past for their data, by the authority of which they 
would restrict future variation and development. Of 
such a conservative character were the great body of 
critical terms previous to the latter portion of the 
eighteenth century, — terms such as taste^ propriety^ 
decorum^ ^correctness^ proportion^ and even trutlfi and 
nature, E. g.\ — 

Those rules of old discovered, not devised, 
Are nature still, but nature metliodised. Pope. 

Since about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
this conservative critical vocabulary has been com- 
pletely revolutionized. A few terms, such as ''correct- 
ness," have become merely retrospective ; others, such 
as " proportion," in being explained psychologically, 
have entirely changed their meaning ; still others, such 
as " decorum," have become obsolete. The psycholog- 
ical terms and principles of modern criticism are essen- 
tially prospective in their outlook. The analytic terms 
and principles of psychology have received little men- 
tion in criticism ; but the synthetic and propulsive 
mental energies are all represented, their significance 
being minutely developed, broadened, and strengthened. 



22 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Such are the terms sensibility/^ feeling^ passion, senti- 
ment^ tvit, humor^ fancy^ imagination^ and a host of 
related expressions. This change from the rhetorical 
to the psychological standpoint is of the utmost impor- 
tance in the general history of criticism. In a history 
of the critical vocabulary, there is merely required the 
statement of the fact of the change, and the general 
principle which produced it. The details, in so far as 
they appear, will be found in the history of the sepa- 
rate terms. 

It is but restating the law of all development to say 
that in the history of criticism the meaning of the 
terms employed has shown a decided change from the 
indefinite to the definite. Four historical stages may 
be distinguished in the growth toward this definite use 
of critical terms. 

I. Previous to the latter portion of the seventeenth 
century, terms were for the most part employed singly, 
and without explanation and illustration. Hence it 
is often difficult to ascertain their meaning with any 
degree of exactness. E, g,\ — 

How wonderful are i\\Q pithei/ poems of Cato. Lodge, p. 5. 

II. Prom the latter portion of the seventeenth cen- 
tury until near the beginning of the present century, 
critical term.s were usually employed synonymously, 
mutually supporting and explaining one another. That 
two or more terms are applied to the same passage of 
literature by a critic argues that they held in his 
mind some sort of relation to one another. But it is 



INI'RODUCTION. 23 

often by no means evident on the printed page what 
that relation was. Many such conglomerations of terms, 
in fact, must, for practical purposes of definition, be 
regarded as isolated expressions. Thus, for synony- 
mous use : — 

Bold and impassioned elevations of tragedy. T. Warton^ Hist. 
Eng. Poetry, p. 866. 

III. From the latter portion of the eighteenth cen- 
tury until within the first few decades of the present 
century, critical terms were very generally contrasted 
and placed in opposition with one another. At first, 
this contrast between critical terms was little more 
than a rhetorical antithesis. The contrast between 
nature and art, genius and talent, was made with the 
tacit assumption that fundamentally nature and genius 
lay wholly beyond the province of literary art. But 
this assumption came to be questioned. One theory 
of literature was placed over against another theory, 
and almost the whole critical vocabulary was reorgan- 
ized and drawn into the contention. The old antitheses 
between critical terms were deepened into essential 
opposition, and new antitheses were added to them. 
The imagination was contrasted with the fancy, wit 
with humor, the ideal with the real, and above and 
over all the subjective with the objective. ^. g-'- — 

Spenser . . . left no Gothic irregular tracery in the design of his 
great work, but gave a classical harmony of parts to its stupen- 
dous pile. Campbell, I., p. 97. 

IV. During the present century, — and especially 
during the latter portion of it, — critical terms have 



24 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

been very generally explained in connection with their 
application to literature. This has already been spoken 
of in discussing the relations between theoretical and 
applied criticism. If the explanation of the term is 
accomplished merely by definition, the living strength 
of the term is often sacrificed to the desire for exact- 
ness ; but if the explanation is accomplished by means 
of illustration, by comparing different passages of lit- 
erature with one another, such a sacrifice need not 
occur. E, g,\ — 

It 1ms been said tliat Tennyson fails in j^assion, and when men say 
that, they mean the embodiment of love in verse. Brooke, 
Tennyson, p. 201. 

There is still another general historical tendency 
among critical terms which requires notice. It relates 
to the manner in which new terms are introduced into 
the vocabulary of criticism, grow into favor, and then 
tend to pass out of use and become obsolete. Critical 
principles are more permanent than critical terms, but 
critical principles are always in a process of change 
and development. A real critical principle must of ne- 
cessity be a developing principle. Critical terms, on 
the other hand, the external signs or symbols of these 
principles, are more conservative. Thus, literature was 
formerly said to be an " imitation of nature." But 
when literature had come to be conceived of as an 
intuition of what was sometimes called the " spirit 
of nature," the term "imitation," unable fully to ex- 
press the new conception, was, as a means of defining 



HISTOPdCAL TENDENCIES AND MOVEMENTS. 25 

literature, gradually superseded by the term " imagina- 
tion." Certain fundamental terms, such as '• truth " 
and '^ nature," seem to have continued in use while 
their meaning has undcj'gone a complete transforma- 
tion. This persistence, however, is usually more appar- 
ent than real. '^ Truth " has been largely superseded by 
the term "realism," and "nature" has almost ceased 
to be a critical term in applied criticism. 

Many terms, introduced into criticism merely for the 
purpose of reinforcing other terms and conceptions 
already well established, have been, so far as they at- 
tracted any attention at all, received into favor from 
the beginning. A. few terms, also, such as " pictur- 
esque " and " musical," have been brought over into good 
standing at once from related arts. Bat most of the im- 
portant critical terms now in use, were first employed 
with more or less disfavor. In regard to the favor with 
which they have been received, four stages may be dis- 
tinguished in the history of the different critical terms. 

I. In the first stage, the principle represented by 
the critical term is recognized as an active influence 
in literature, but this influence is thought to be more 
or less pernicious, and destructive to the integrity of 
literature as such. The term " Gothic," until the latter 
portion of the eighteenth century, was in this stage of 
development. 

II. In the second stage, the term is not only seen 
to represent influential tendencies in current litera- 
ture, but these tendencies are thought to be essential 
to literary art considered as literary art. The term is 



26 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

employed not only in explaining current literature, 
but also in interpreting the literature of the past. 
" Correctness " and ^' propriety " were so employed in 
the eighteenth century ; " imagination/' " humor," and 
"• realism " in the present century. 

III. In the third stage, the term represents a prin- 
ciple which is no longer active to any considerable 
extent in current literature. Enough appreciation of 
the principle still remains for it to be regarded as an in- 
tegral portion of literary ai*t. The term is thus essen- 
tially retrospective, and for an abbreviated form of state- 
ment may be spoken of as a retrospective term. The term 
" correct " is at present in this stage of its history. 

IV. In the fourth stage, the term represents an in- 
fluence once prominent in literature, which has since 
come to be regarded as wholly outside the limits of 
the real province of literary art. The more formal 
signification of the term '' propriety" is at present in 
this final stage of its critical history. 

III. Method of Dealing w^ith the Separate 
Critical Terms. 

The general conception of what critical terms are, 
which has now been given, and of the historical move- 
ments that take place among them, has determined the 
method employed in presenting the history of the dif- 
ferent terms. Critical terms are regarded, not as hav- 
ing a significance, which is the result of mere accidental 
association, but as representing critical principles, which 
at a certain stage of their development require new 



DEALING WITH SEPARATE CRITICAL TERMS. 2T 

methods of expression, and appropriate for their use 
certain words out of the vocabulary of the general lan= 
guage. Hence, corresponding to the stages of devel- 
opment in the critical principle, the history of the 
term which represents it will tend to separate itself 
into more or less definitely marked periods. The gen- 
eral characteristics of the term in each period of its 
history are given, — characteristics which are intended 
to define the term in relation to the principle it rep- 
resents, as well as in relation to the more or less 
synonymous expressions which merely vary or rein- 
force the common meaning of the general principle. 
Occasionally some general term, during a single period 
of its history, has two or three different uses; but 
usually there is a characteristic use for every term at 
any given time or period of its history, to which all 
its special uses may be referred for explanation. It 
is this characteristic use of the term which in every 
instance is attempted to be defined or represented. 
Any use of a term once established tends to recur 
occasionally in a conventional manner throughout all 
the later stages of the term's development. These 
purely conventional uses of a term need not for his- 
torical purposes be taken into consideration. Negative 
terms, those which merely deny that a composition pos- 
sesses a certain critical or literary principle, are treated 
as briefly as possible, since their meaning is included 
in that of the positive terms to which they are opposed. 

With terms which have been very frequently em- 
ployed in criticism, the references have been omitted, 



28 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

the space which they would have occupied — there were 
more than twenty-five thousand of them — being given 
to representative quotations. The marginal phrases, 
the text, and tlie quotations are intended to supple- 
ment one another in defining the general conception 
of a term at any period of its history. The marginal 
phrases are intended to suggest the essential relations 
existing between the different periods of the terra's 
development ; the text to give the essential relations 
between the special uses of the term in any one period 
of its history. 

It was the design at first to present the history of 
the different terms in groups of synonyms, taking up 
the groups in the order of their greatest historical 
influence. But for ease of reference, it has been 
thought best to arrange the terms in alphabetical 
order, and place the historical grouping of synonyms 
in an appendix. (See Appendix.) The Roman nu- 
merals placed immediately after the terms indicate 
the group in the Appendix to which the terms respec- 
tively belong. The historical limit of the terms as 
given — ^.^.^' Milton to present" — is based upon their 
applied use in the main current of criticism. Mere 
theory, unless the illustration given is very promi- 
nent and significant, has not been regarded as giving 
active current usage to a term ; and the historical 
limits to many of the terms would no doubt be much 
changed by a study of minor critics, which, from the 
necessary limits of the present investigation, has not 
been permitted. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Nearly all the works of criticism in tlie Library of the University of 
Chicago, iu the Chicago City Library, aud in the Xewberry Library were 
read and consulted. A few rare books were obtained from private sources. 
The following list contains those works to which most frequent reference is 
made. References in the book to other works and editions than those men- 
tioned below are given in full in connection with the separate quotations. 

A. Addison: Bohii's edition, 6 vols., London, 1S91. M. Arnold: 

Works, MacmiUan & Co., 1SS3-1S91. T. Arnold: Man. of Eng. 
Lit., London, 1SS8. Ascham : 3 vols., London, lS6i. 

B. Bacon: Complete Works, Spedding's edition, London, 1857. 

Bagehot : Literary Stndies, 2 vols., London, 1S91. Beers : 

2 vols., New York, IS S6 and 1S91. Bentlev: Complete Works, 

3 vols., London, 1836-38. Blair: Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, 
University edition, PhiladelpMa. Brooke: 3 vols., Xew York 
and London, 1892-94. E. Browning : Prose, 2 vols., London, 
1877. Bryant: Prose, Xew York, 1S89. Burke: Bohn, 5 vols., 
London, 1881. Byron: Life and Letters, Murray, London, 1892. 

C. Camden: Bemains Concerning Britain, London, 1870. Camp- 

bell: Murray's edition, London, ISIS. Campion: Works, Bullen, 
London, 1SS9. Carlyle : Crit. and Mis. Essays, 7 vols., London, 
1888-91. Channing: Bemarks, etc., on Milton, London, 1845. 
Coleridge: Complete Works, 7 vols., Shedd, New York, 1881; 
Letters, Boston and Kew York, 1895. Collier: Murray, London, 
1831. Courthope : Lib. Movement in Eng. Lit., London, 1885. 

D. Daniel: Complete Work^, 1 vols., Grosart, 18S5. Dekker : Huth 

Library, 5 vols., 1881. De Quincey : Masson's edition, Edin- 
burgh, 1889. Dowden: Works, London, 1888-89. Dryden : 
Scott and Saintsbury edition, 18 vols. 
B, George Eliot: Essays, Edinburgh and London, 1885. Emerson: 
Works, Houghton, MifHin & Co , Boston, 1891-92. 



30 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

G. Gascoigne : Arber's Reprints, Binniugliam, 1869. Gibbon: Mur- 
ray, vols., 1S14;. Goldsmith: Bolm, Loudon, 1S86. Gosse: 
5 vols., Loudon, 1882-91; A Study of the Writings of Bjornson, 
New York, 1895. Gosson: Arber's Reprints, Birmingham, 1868. 
Gray : Gosse's edition, 4 vols., New York, 1890. 

H. Hallam: Lit. Hist., 4 vols., London, 1882. Harvey: Grosart, 
London, 1884. Haslewood : The Arte of English Poesie, London, 
1815. Hazlitt: Works, W. C. Hazlitt's edition, London, 1886. 
Hobbes : Complete Works, Molesworth, London, 1811. Howells: 
Grit, and riction. New York, 1891. D. Hume : Essays, 2 vols.. 
Green and Grose, London, 1889. Hunt : Prose, London, 1891. 
Hurd : Complete W^orks, London, 1811. 

J. H. James : Partial Portraits, London, 1888. K. James: Arber's 
Reprints, Birmingham, 1869. Jeffrey : Longmann et al., editors, 
1846. S. Johnson: Complete Works, 11 vols., London, 1825. 
B. Jouson: Timber, Schelling's edition, Boston, 1892; Complete 
Works, 3 vols., London, 1889. 

K. Keats : Letters, New York, 1891 ; Life and Letters, London, 
1889. 

L. Lamb: Works, New York, 1887-90. Landor : Life and Works, 
London, 1876. Lodge: ColKer, 1851. Lowell: Works, Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York, 1892. 

M. Macaulay : Mis. Works, 4 vols., Trevelyan edition. New York. 
Mathews: Literary Studies. Milton: Prose, London, 1890. 
Minto: Man. of Eng. Prose Lit., Char, of Eng. Poets, Boston, 
1891. J. Morley: Works, Macmillan & Co., London, 1891. 
Moulton: Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, Oxford, 1888. 

N. Newman: Essay on Aristotle's Poetics, Boston, 1891. 

P. Pater: Appreciations, etc., London, 1890. Poe : Works, 4 vols., 
New York. Pope: Courthope, etc., 10 vols,, London, 1871-86. 
Puttenliam : Arber Reprints, Birmingham, 1869. 

R. Robertson : Essays toward a Critical Method, London, 1889. 
Rossetti : Lives of Eamous Poets, London, 1878. Preface to 
Blake's Poetical Works, London, 1S91. Ruskin : Works, New 
York, 1891. Rymer : Tragedies, Parts I. and II., London, 
1692-93. 

S. Saintsbury : Specimens of English Prose Style, London, 1885; 
Hist, of Eng. Lit., vol. ii., Macmillan, London; Essays in Eng. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY, 31 

Lit., 1780-1860, New York, 1891; A Short Hist, of Fr. Lit., 
Oxford, 1892 ; A Hist, of 19tli Century Lit., New York, 1896. 
Scott: Editor of Dryden, Edinburgh, 1882; Editor of Swift, 
London, 1883. Sliaftesbury : Complete Works, 3 vols., 1757. 
Shelley: Complete Works, 3 vols., Eorman, London, 1S80. 
Sherman : Analytics of Lit., Boston, 1893. Sidney : Cook, Bos- 
ton, 1890. Stedman : Victorian Poets, Boston, 1891 ; The Na- 
ture and El. of Poetry, do., 1893. Stephen: Hrs. in a Lib., 
3 vols., London, 1871 ; Lives of Pop6, Johnson, and Swift in 
Morley Series, Harpers, New York. Stephenson : Eamiliar 
Studies of Men and Books, New York, 1895. Swift: Scott, 
19 vols., London, 1883. Swinburne : Works, London, 1875-89. 
- J. A. Symonds : Es., Spec, and Suggestive, London, 1893. 

T. Thackeray : 2 vols., Harper's Half Hour Series, New York. 

W. Walton: Lives, London, 1888. J. Warton: Essay on Pope, 
2 vols., London, 1806. T. Warton: Hist, of Eng. Poetry, Ward, 
etc., London, Reprint of 1778-81. Webbe : Arber Reprints, 
Birmingham, 1870. Whetstone: Shakespeare Library, Yol. Y"l., 
London, 1875. Whipple: Works, Boston, 1891. J. Wilson: 
Essays, Critical and Imaginative, Blackwood & Sons, London and 
Edinburgh. T. Wilson : The Arte of Rhetorique, Printed by R. 
Grafton, 1553. Wordsworth: Prose, Grosart, 3 vols., London, 
1876. 



A HISTORY 

OF 

ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 



Ability, Group Y. b\ Jeff., Swin., Gosse. 

Wilson's drama (1690) was full of ability. Gosse, Hist, of 
Eng., Lit., p. 40. 
Abortive (V.) b : Dramatic abortions . . . misbegotten by dullness 

upon vanity (of Byron). Swixburne, Mis., p. 81. 
Abrupt (XIII.) : Harvey to present. 

May be a praiseworthy quality of composition, but 
usually is not so. 

Samson Agonistes opens with a graceful abruptness. S. Johnsox, 

YoL III. p. 158. 
Let there be nothing harsh or abrupt in the conclusion of the 
sentence on which the mind pauses and rests. Blair, Rhet., 
p. 140. (Quoted from Quintilian.) 
Absolute (XXII )^/': Swinburne, Studies, p. 165. 
Abstract, Abstracted (YIII.) : Jef, to present. 

Keats' poetry is ... too dreamy and abstracted to excite the 

strongest interest. Jeffrey, II., p. 376. 
In Rossetti ... a forced and almost grotesque materializing of 
abstractions. Pater, Ap., p. 232. 
Abstinent (XIX.) : Purity and abstinence of style (Wordsworth). 
Lowell, l^rose lY., p. 415. 

3 



34 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Abstruse (III.): Miuto to present. Gosse, Prom Shakesjoeare to 

Pope, p. 125. 
Absurd (XX.): Sidney to present; in considerable use. 

The absurd naivety of Sancho Panciio. D. IIume, I., p. 240. 
This extravagant and absurd diction. Wordsworth, II., p. 103. 
Abundance (XL) d : Dekker to present. 

Chaste abundance ... of Goethe. Carlyle, I., p. 230. 
The stately and gorgeous abundance of the vocabulary with which 
the Hellenizing and Latinizing innovations of the Pleiade en- 
riched the Prench hmguage. Saintsbury, Hist. Pr. Lit., 
p. 211. 
Academic (XX.) : The Idylls of the King . . . are a little too aca- 
demic. Brooke, Tennyson, p. 268. 
Blending of the academic and classical manner with the romantic 
and discursive (of Hooker). Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., IL, 
p. 44. 
Accomplished (V.) b: Bossetti to present. 

Accomplished and dextrous rhythm ... of Swin. Saintsbury, 
Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 394. 
ACCURATE (YIIL) : B. Jonson to present; in considerable use. 

Previous to the present century, the term '' accurate " 
As exactness ^'S^^^^Hj referred to the language of a com- 
of expression. pQgitiQi;^^ indicating a careful choice of words 
and exactness of method in their arrangement. 

Our composition must be more accurate in tlie beginning and end 
than in the midst, and in the end more than in the beginning. 
B. JoNSOX, Timber, p. 62. 

No matter how slow the style be at fn*st, so it be laboured and 
accurate. Id., p. 54. 

Accuracy is seen in tlie expression. Drydex, XII., p. 284. 

During the present century, the term has almost 

A tr thf 1 uniformly represented a faithful and per- 

nesstofact. jj^ps detailed description of actual facts and 
events. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 35 

Truth and accuracy. Hazlttt, El. Lit., p. 7- 
The accuracy on which Pope prided liimself . . . was not accu- 
racy of thought so much as of expression. Lowell, IY., 
p. 37. 
A figure maybe ideal and yet accurate. Swinburne, Es. and St., 

p. 220. 
Scientifically accurate in his statement of the fact. Dowdex, 
Shak., etc., p. 247. 
Acerbity (XI.Y.) : Cole., Macaulay. 
Acrimony (XIY.) : Jeffiey. 
ACTION (XVIII.) : Whetstone to present. 

The word '' action," though occarriDg frequently in 
criticism, has very seldom been employed as an actual 
critical term. Lentil the middle of the eidi- . ,, • 

<^- As Epic 

teenth century, the term usually referred to "movement, 
historic deeds, to external events, to heroic adventui'es, 
celebrated chiefly in song and in Epic story. 

What . . . the poet . . . imitates is action. Aeistotle, Poet., 

p. 31. 
In the Iliad, which was written when Homer's genius was in its 

prime, the whole structure of the poeui is founded on action and 

struggle. LoxGixus, pp. 20, 21. 
The Epic asks a magnitude from other poems, since what is place 

in the one is action in the other. B. Joxsox, Timber, 

p. 83. 
The spectators are always pleased to see action, and are not often 

so ill-natured to pry into and examine whether it be proper. 

Rymek, 2d Pt., p. 3. 

The relations between action and passion wei'e always 
regarded as being very intimate. During the latter lialf 
of the eighteenth century, this intimacy of ^^ Dramatic 
relation became greatly increased. By the ^o^^^^^^t. 
beginning of the present century, action had become 



36 A HISTORY OF EXGLISR CRITICAL TERMS. 

subordinated to passion, or at most action was made 
to represent more or less directly the flow of mental 
imagery, the sequence of thought, the suspense, the 

emotion aroused by the description of an event, rather 
than the mere event itself, considered as an external 
movement, a fact of history. 

Whence it comes to pass that the action, having an essential dig- 
nity, is always interesting, and by the simplest mauagenieut of 
the poet becomes in a supreme degree pathetic. Hurd, II. 
p. U. 
Cato wants action and pathos, the two hinges on which a just 

tragedy ought to turn. J. Warton, p. 257- 
The feeling ... in Lyrical Ballads . . . gives importance to the 
action and situation, and not the action and situation to the 
feeling. Wordsworth, II., p. IS3. 
Action ... the eternal object of poetry. M, Arnold, Mix. Es., 
p. 489, etc. 
Actual (Till.) : Swinburne. 
Acute : (XX.) d • Milton to present. 

Acuteness of remark, or depth of reflection. Miltox. III. p. 
49S. 
Acumen (XX.) d: Acumen of thought. T. Arxold, Man., etc., 

p. 459. 
Adapted (IV.) : S. Johnson to present. 

Thoughts and words elegantly adapted to the subject. Drydex, 
v., p. 124. 
Admirable (XXII.) ^/: Jef., Swin. Dowdeii, Trans. & St., p. 

•2-29 
Adolescent (XV.) : The beauty ... of Keats' poems . . . liave 
an adolescent and frecpiently a morbid tone. E-OSSEtti, Life and 
Letters, p. 20S. 
Adorable (XXIL) a: Swinburne, Mis., pp. 46, 221, etc. 
ADORNED ( v.): AVcbbe to present. Ornamented; colored. 

The term refers to tlie result ratlier than to tlie pro- 
cess of ornamentation. Tlie result may be brouofht 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 3T 

about either by elaborate design or bv spontaneous 
processes. 

The great art of poets is . . . the adorning and beautifying of 

truth. Drtdex, XV., p. 40S. 
The object of the poetry of the imagination is to raise or adorn 
one idea by another more striking or more beautiful. Hazlitt, 
Eiig. Com. Writers, p. 64. 
Adroit (Y.) b -. HaUam to present. 

Adroitly extravagant. STriyBUiiXE, Mis., p. 69. 
Adventurous (XIX.) : Hazlilt to present. 

Romantic and adventiirons incidents. Stephen. Hrs. in a Lib., 
pp. 56, 57. 
Aerial (XXII.) b : Pure, lucid, aerial. S^ixBrEXE, Es. i- St., p. 

139. 
iESTHETIC (XXII.) b : Much used, but almost wholly in theory. 
The writings of the '''romantic school,'"' of which the aesthetic 
poetry is an afterthought . . . mark a transition from a lower 
to a higher degree of passion in literature= Pater, Ap., 
p. '2U^ 
AFFECTATION (YII.) : AFFECTED : T. TVilson to present. 

Much in use. but has not. perhaps, changed its mean- 
ing.' In theory, it indicates the assumption on the 
part of the author of a style or method of expression 
which is unnatural, not spontaneous. As actually ap- 
plied to literature, it indicates a style or method of 
expression which offends the taste of the critic. In 
early English criticism, the diction and language em- 
ployed gave most offence : later, the general tone and 
spirit of the composition. 

Spenser, in affecting the ancients, writ no language. B. JoNSoy, 
Timber, p. 57. 

Sliakespeare's whole style is so pestered with figurative expres- 
sions, that it is as affected as it is obscure. Dryden, YL, 
p. 255. 



38 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Wordsworth ... is affected. Jeffrey, II., p. 523, 
The essence of affectation is that it be assumed; the character 
is, as it were, forcibly crushed into some foreign mould, in the 
hope of bemg thereby reshaped and beautified. Carlyle, I., 

p-ii- 

Longfellow oftener runs into affectation through his endeavors at 
simplicity than through any other cause. Poe, II., p. xviii. 
Affecting (XVIL) : Jef. to present. 1st. As the ''affected." 

2d. As the touching, pathetic. 
Affinity (XXII.) ^: Hazlitt, Shak., p. 7- 
Affluent (XI.)/>: Whip, to present. 

Those poems . . . which are apparently the most affluent of im- 
agery, are not always those which most kindle the reader's 
imagination. Bryant, Prose, L, p. 9. 
Aggressive (XII.), cf. (XIV.): [Ros. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., 

p. 66. 
Agreeable (XXII.) b : Most pathetic and most interesting, and by 

consequence the most agreeable. D. Hume, L, p. 264. 
Airy (XXII.) b : S. Johnson to present. 

Airy, rapid, picturesque. Jeffrey, II., p. 46. 

Airiness of fancy. Lowell, IV., p. 267. 

Airy and pretty. T. Arnold, Man. etc., p. 272. 
Alacrity (V.) b : An alacrity of language. Lowell, Prose, IV., 

p. 304. 
Alembicated : Inequality and alembicated character of the poetry in 

vogue. GossE, From Shak. to Pope, p. 33. 
ALLEGORIC (XXL). 

Primarily a classifying term. Symbolism of moral 
traits by means of fables. More in favor in early Eng- 
lish criticism than at present. 

A continuous allegory or dark conceit. Spensee, Introduction 

to Faery Queen. 
Poetry, composed of allegory, fables, and imitations, does not deal 

in falsehoods. 1591. Hakrington, in Haslewood's Arte of 

Poetry, p. 127- 
Stale allegorical imagery. Saintsbury, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 104. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 39 

Alliterative (X.) : Hallam to present. Swiubume, Es. & St., p. 265. 
Allusive (XVI.) : Saints, to present. 

Three kinds of poetry : Narrative ; Representative; Allusive, — ■ 
to express some special purpose or conceit. Bacox, IV., 
p. 402. 
Eertility of allusion ... in Butler. Brya^^t, L, p. 49. 
Dryclen . . . taught the poets to be explicit where they had been 
vexatiously allusive. Gosse, Hist. Eiig. Lit., III., p. 26. 
Ambiguous (III.) : T. Wilson to present. Puttenham, p. 267. 
Ambitious (XII.) : Dryden to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 229. 
Ambling (X.) : Hazlitt to present. 

Graceful ambhng ... of Addison. Whipple, Es. & Heviews, 
p. 60. 
Amenity (XIV.) : Bkiir. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 19. 
Amorphous (11.) : Sidney's Arcadia is dreadfully amorphous and 

invertebrate. Gosse, From Shak. etc., p. 22. 
Ample (XI.) h: B. Jonson to present. Swin., Es. & St., p. 69. 
Amplification, Amplified (XIX.) c : T. Wilson to present. 

Used for the most part previous to the present century. 

Amplifying and beautifying. T. Wilson, Bhet., p. 25. 
Amplitude (XI.) & : Landor to present. 

Sonorous amplitude of Milton's style. Lowell, IY., p. SI. 
Amusing (XYII.) : Jef. to present. 

More amusing than accountable. Hunt, Wit and Humour, 
p. 10. 
Anachronism (IV.), cf. (YIII.) : J. Warton to present. J. Wartou, 

IL, p. 16. 
ANALITTIC (Xy.) h : Stedman to present. 

Analysis as such, tlic mere tendency to discriminate 
and to separate anything into its elements, has never 
been regarded with much favor in criticism. To pos- 
sess literary value, analysis must in some manner be 
combined with synthesis. 

Wit is negative, aualytical, destructive; Humor is creative. 
Whipple, Lit. & Life, p. 9l. 



40 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Possessing a sense of proportion, based upon the highest ana- 
lytic and synthetic powers. Stedman, Vic. Poets, p. 199. 
Scott was often tediously analytic where the modern novehst is 
dramatic. Howells, Crit. & Piction, p. 21. 
Aniline (V.) : Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. Style, p. xvii. 
Animated (XII.) : Mil, J. Warton to present. Mucli in use. 

An infinite variety of tropes, or turns of expression . . . which 

serve to animate the whole. Goldsmith, L, p. 357. 
The animation, fire, and rapidity which Homer throws into his 
battles. Blair, llhet., p. 40. 
Anticlimax (XII.) : Steplien to present. 

The Lotus Eaters . . . closes in a feeble anticUmax. Buooke, 
Ten, p. 124. 
Antiphonal (X.) : Swinburne, Es. & St, p. 200. 
Antiquated (lY.) : Goldsmith to present. 

Antiquated and colloquial. Jeffrey, L, p. 416. 
Antithetical (II.) : Scott to present. 

Snapping anlitheses of Macaulay. Saints, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxi. 
Appropriate (IV.) : Collier to present. Poe, IL, p. 163. 
Apt (IV.) : Ascliam to present. 

The unaptness of our tongues and the difficulty of imitation dis- 
heartens us. Campion, p. 233. 
Not only what is great, strange, or beautiful, but anything that is 
disagreeable, when looked upon, pleases us in an apt description. 
Addison, III., p. 418. 
Arabesque (II.) : Byron to present. 

K-ichter's manner of writing is singular ; na}^, in fact, a wild com- 
plicated arabesque. Carlyle, L, p. 16. 
Archaic, Archaisms (I.) : Landor to present. 

Antiquated expressions, ^vhich, from a certain unex- 
pectedness and quaintness, may possess literary merit. 

A grave and sparkling admixture of archaisms in the ornaments 
and occasional phraseology ... of Southey's prose. Hazlitt, 
Sp. of Age, p. 145. 

A permissible archaism is a word or phrase that has been sup- 
]:)lantcd by something less a[)t, but has not become unintelli- 
gible. Lowell, IV., p. 217. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 41 

The natural effect of archaisms on pathetic passages is to make 
them sweeter and simpler, by making them more childlike. 
Mi^TO, Char, of Eng. Poets, p. 26. 
Architectonics (XXIII.) : M. Arnold. 
Archness (XYII.) : CaQ:ipbell to present. 
Arctic (XY.) : Hunt. 
Ardent (XY.) : Scott to present. 
Ardour (XY.) : Masculine ardour ... of Milton. Dowdex, Tr. 

& St., p. 270. 
Arid (XYI.) : HaUam. 
ART (XXII.) d. 

The history of the term " art " is to be connected 
with that of the term '' artistic," — the two together 
representing the development of a single critical prin- 
ciple. The term " art " was chiefly used previous to 
the present century, '^artistic" during this century. 
''Art" as a critical term has almost invariably been 
placed in antithesis to " nature," and hence its mean- 
ing is in large part determined by the use of the term 
to which it has been opposed. It has perhaps been 
used in two slightly different ways. 

When " nature " represented subjective impulses and 
instincts, the term did not indicate the entire mental 
process which takes place in the production ^^ ^^^^^ 
of literature. ''Art" denoted whatever in and design. 
the composition results from skill, from conscious de- 
vice and design, from the employment of rules and 
method. 

If a thing admits of being brought into being without art or prep- 
aration, a fortiori, it will admit of it bv the help of art and 
attention. Aristotle, Rliet., p. 163. 

In Sallust's writing is more art than nature, and more labor than 
art. 1568. Ascham, III., p. 264. 



42 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The courtier following that which by practice he fiiicleth fittest to 

nature, therein though he know it not, dotli according to art, 

though not by art. 1583. Sidney, p. 54. 
Art is only a help and remembrance to nature. 1585. K. James, 

p. 66. 
Nature engendereth, art frameth. 1593. Harvey, I., p. 263. 
Art, when it is once matured to habit, vanishes from observation. 

1751. S. Johnson, III., p. 80. 
Some had the art without the power; others had flashes of the 

power without the art. Saintsbury, Hist. E. L., p. 53. 

Wlien '' nature " was regarded as external and ob- 
jective, " art " indicated the whole mental process 
necessarv for giving to this external nature 

As selective " ' . *■.,!. 

skill, and a literary representation. "Art thus m- 
power. "^ ^ 

eluded not only skill and design, but also 
in a vague way the more primal and instinctive literary 
activities of the mind. 

Art and nature compared (summary). 

1. Art an exact imitator of nature, e. g. Painting. 

2. Art covers defects of nature. 

3. Art heightens the beauties of nature. 

4. Art develops forms wholly beyond nature. 1585. 

PUTTENITAM, pp. 308-312. 

' We should be admiring some glorious representation of nature, 
aud are stopped on a sudden to observe the writer's art. 1751. 
HuiiD, I., p. 361. 
Artful (V.) Z*: Dryden to present. 

That whicli in composition gives evidence of con- 
scious design and device. In better repute during the 
eighteenth century than during the present century. 

The plot ... of JNIeasurc for Measure ... is rather intricate 

than artful. S. Johnson, V., p. 158. 
Artful but not artistic. WnippLE, Age of El., p. 118. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 43 

Artifice (V.) : Hume to present. Device for producing artfnl effects. 
Tiie simple manner . . . conceals the artifice as muck as possible ; 
endeavoring only to express the effect of art, under the appear- 
ance of the greatest ease and negligence. Shaftesbuhy, I., p. 
202. 

Artificial (VII.) : Ascham to present. Much in use. 

I. Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
the '• artificial" occasionally represented the •* artful." 

In Gorboduc . . . there is both many days and many places inar- 
tihcially imagined. Sidney, p. -iS. 

II. Usually the term indicates the unnatural, that 
which is at once artful and labored. 

Those artificial assemblages of pleasing objects, which are not to 
be found in nature. J. TVabton, I., pp. 3, 4i. 
ARTISTIC (XXII.) b. (See ART.) 

The term " artistic " represents a blending of the 
old antithesis between art and nature into an aesthetic 
unity, — a unity which refers not only to the active 
process of composing, but also to the effect of the 
composition on the mind of the reader. As denoting 
the active process of composing, the artistic necessi- 
tates the exercise both of acquired skill and of the 
spontaneous powers of the mind, — of feeling, of pas- 
sion, of imagination. As referring to the appreciation 
of literature, the artistic includes both cultivated taste 
and native sensibility. The artistic represents such a 
refinement of the crude facts and materials of litera- 
ture as to give no offence to the most cultivated taste, 
and at the same time such an accurate and vivid por- 
trayal of these facts as to stimulate the most healthful 



44 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

and vigorous imagination. The term is thus a com- 
plete expression at any given time for the progressive 
aesthetic sense which accompanies literary development. 

If by sayiug that a poem is artistical we mean that its form cor- 
responds with its spirit, that it is fashioned into the likeness of 
the thought or emotion it is intended to convey, then "The 
Buccaneer" and " Thanatopsis " are as artistical as the " Yoices 
of the Night." . . . The best artist is he who accommodates his 
diction to his subject, and -in this sense Longfellow is an artist. 
18tt4. Whipple, Es. and Reviews, p. 59. 

Artful but not artistic. 1859. Whip., Lit. of Age of E., p. 108. 

Nothing but the highest artistic sense can prevent humor from 
degenerating into the grotesque. 1866. Lowell, IL, p. 90. 

In works of art or pure literature, the style is even more impor- 
tant than the thought, for the reason that the style is the artis- 
tic part, the only thing in which the writer can show originality. 
Ma^thews, Lit. St., p. 9. 

And when one's curiosity is in excess, when it overbalances the 
desire of beauty, then one is liable to value in works of art 
what is inartistic in them. 1886. Patee, Ap., p. 21^8. 

Some sonnets of Mrs. Browning lack that fine artistic self-control, 
the highest obedience to the law of beauty, which should be as 
stringent as the self-control of asceticism, and is so much more 
fruitful. 1887. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 229. 

That fine efiluence of the whole artistic nature which can hardly 
be analyzed and which we term style. Dowden, St. in L., 
p. 193. "^ 
Artless (VIL) : Campbell to present. 

The term artlessness may be applied to Heywood in two very op- 
posite senses : as truth to life and natural feeling ; as being 
without art. Campbell, L, p. 219. 
Asiatic (XIX.) : Milton to present. 

The exuberaurt richness of Asiatic phraseology. Milton^ III., 
p. 204. 

A feeble, diffuse, showy, Asiatic redundancy. Hazlitt, Sp. of A., 
p. 201. 
Assonant (X.): Assonant, harmonious. Stedmax, Yic. Poets, p. 46. 



A HI ST Oil Y OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 45 

Attractive (XXil.) ^ : A^'ord:>wurlil lo present. Mathews, Lit. 
Studies, p. 29. 

Audacity (XII.) : liuskin to present. Swinburne, Es. k St., p. S6. 

August (XL) : Alilron to present. Sw-inburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 

Austere (XV,) : Hume to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 11:2. 

Authentic : (VIII.) ; Authentic, honest^ and direct terms. JjlITREY, 
L, p. -211. 

Autumnal: Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., p. 17S. 

Awkward (XIX.) : Drvden to present. 

Simplicity may be rustic and awkward, of wldch there are innu- 
merable examples in AVordsworth's volumes. Landok, IV., 
p. 61. 

Babyish (XL) : Babyish interjections. JzrrELY, 11. , p. 175. 

Balance (IL) : L. Xewton to present. 

Equipoise of phrase, thought, and feeLng. 

Precise balance. T. X^ltttox, Spen. Society, vol. 43, p. 2. 
I woidd trace the origin of meter to the balance in the mind 
effected by that spontaneous effurt which strives to hold in 
check the workings of passion. Coleridge, III., p. 415. 
The imagination . . . the faculty that shapes, gives unity of de- 
sign, and balanced gravitation of parts. Lowell, III., p. 30. 
The needful qualities for a fit prose are regularity, uniformity, pre- 
cision, balance. 
Tennyson's poetry exhibits a well-balanced moral nature. Dow- 
den, St. in Lit., ]). 113. 
Bald (XYL), cf. (V.) : Milton to present. 

Wordsworth ... a baldness which is full of grandeur. M. 

Arnold, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 159. 
Locke's style ... is bald, dull, plebeian. Saints., Eng. Pr. St., 
p. xxiv. 
Balderdash (XXII.) ^: Lrantic balderdash. Saints., Hist. Lr. Lit., 

p. 25. 
Barbarism (I.) : AYebbe to present. 

The craving for instant effect in style . . . brings forward many 
disgusting Germanisms and other barbarisms. De Quincey, 
XL, p. 422. 
Barbarous (lA'.) : Ascliam to present. 

That which very much offends taste and ]»ro[)riety. 



46 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Earbarity and Gothicism. SHArTESBURY, I., p. 174. 

We are apt to call barbarous whatever departs widely from our 

owu taste and apprebensiou. Hume, I., p. 266. 
A tasteless and barbarous turn of phrase, in which all feeling of 
propriety and elegance was lost. Hallam, Lit. Hist., 11., 
p. 23. 
Bare (V.) : Scott to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 126. 
Barren (XVI.) : Puttenham to present. 

The remedy for exuberance is easy ; barrenness is incurable by any 

labor. QuiNTiLiAX, II., p. 106. 
Dry, hard, and barren of effect. Hazlitt, Age of EL, p. 207. 
Barytone (X.) : M. Arnold. 

Virile barytone quality. Stedman, Vic Poets, 111. 
Base (V.): Ascham, Puttenham. 

Thus rudely turned into base Enghsh. Ascham, 111., p. 197. 
Bastard (VII.) : M. Arnold to present. 

Bastard Epic style ... of Scott. M. Aii^'old, Celtic Lit., etc., 
p. 195. 
Bathos (XI.) : Scott to present. 

Mistaking vulgarity for simplicity, turned into bathos what they 
found sublime. Campbell, L, p. 19. 
Bawdry (XIV.) : Burlesque or bawdry ... of Breton. Saixts- 

BURY, Hist, of Eug. Lit., p. 239. 
BEAUTY (XXll.) b. 

The history of the term '^ beauty " may be divided 

into three general periods. Previous to the eighteenth 

century, the beautiful was uniformly regarded 

As ornamen- i , p , • • i i 

taUon and as a result or a certain rearrano'ino; and poi- 

artifice. . . ^ r> i 

ishing of a truth that was thought to be 
external and unchamreable. This rearran2:in2: and 
polishing was attained by conscious ingenuity. Hence 
the conception of tlie beautiful in early criticism is 
usually expressed by means of an active verb, which 
designates the skill of the author in manipulating his 
material. The ]:)cautiful thus, for the most part at 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 4i 

least, was capable of being reduced to rule and method. 
It was a product of invention, and was copied or imi- 
tated from author to author. 

Beauty lies in compass aud order. Aeistotle, Poetics, p. 25. 
Amplifying and beautifying. 1553. Th. Wilsox, Rhet., p. -25. 
Only man and no beast liatli that gift to discern beauty. 15 S3. 

Sidney. Poet., p. 37- 
Figures which beautify language. 15 S5. PuTTEXH.ur, p. 206. 
Beautify the same Avith brave devices. 15 S6. T\'ebbe, p. 36. 
Periods are beautiful when they are not too long. (Pub.) 1641. 

B. JoNSON, Timber, p. 62. 
If the parts are managed so regularly, that the beauty of tlie whole 

be kept entire. 166S. Drydex, XT., p. 335. 
His genius is able to make beautifid what he pleases. 1671. 

Drydex, V., p. 112. 
It is better to trespass on a rule than leave out a beauty. 1692. 

Drydex, YIIL. p. 221. 
Persius borrows most of his beauties from Horace. 1693. Dry- 
dex, XIIL, p. 73. 
The least proportion or beauty of tragedy. 167S. Ey'mer, 1st 

Pt, p. 41. 

During the eighteenth century, the beautiful was 
regarded not so much as something which could be 
consciously constructed as something which ^ ^^^ 
was merely to be apprehended. The beau- pfe^s^^fLd 
tiful was apprehended by means of taste or ^^^^^ 
"delicacy of imagination." Both taste and the sense 
of the beautiful varied with increasing knowledge (see 
Taste\ In the latter part of the century, when taste 
cam.e to be founded more on sensibility and less on 
culture, the beautiful likewise was thought to have 
less intimate relations with proportion and the under- 
standing than with tlie more spontaneous activities of 



48 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

the mind. But wlletlier associated with understanding 
or with feeling, the final test of the beautiful was the 
amount of immediate pleasure that was produced in 
the mind of the reader. The critics usually found 
this greatest pleasure in the " proprieties," occasion- 
ally, however, in an impropriety. 

Any writer wlio shall treat on tins subject after me may fiud sev- 
eral beauties in Milton wbicli I have not taken notice of. 1711. 
Addison, III., pp. 223-24. 

I have endeavored to show how some passages are beautiful by 
being sublime , others by being soft ; others by being natural. 
1711. Id. p. 283. 

It is impossible to continue in the practice of contemplating any 
order of beauty, without being frequently obliged to form com- 
parisons between the several species and degrees of excellence, 
and estimating their proportions to each other. 1712. Hume, 
I., p. 275. 

It seldom or never happens that a man of sense, who has experi- 
ence in any art, cannot judge of its beauty. 1742. Id., I., 
p. 278. 

It is in many cases apparent that beauty is merely relative . . . 
that we transfer the epithet as our knowledge increases, and 
appropriate it to higher excellence, when higher excellence comes 
within our view. 1751. S. Johnson, II., p. 431. 

It has been the lot of many great names not to have been able to 
express themselves with beauty and propriety in the fetters of 
verse. 1756. J. Wauton, I., pp. 265-66. 

The qualities of beauty are all sensible qualities : I. Small. 
II. Smooth. III. Yariety in the direction of the parts. 
lY. Parts not angular but melted as it were into each other. 
Y. Delicate frame without any remarkable appearance of 
strength. YI. Colors clear and briglit but not strong or glar- 
ing. YII. If any glaring color to have it diversified with 
others. 1756. Burke, I., p. 136. 

Proportion is a creature of the .understanding . . . but beauty 
demands no assistance from our reasoning. 1756. Id., p. 114. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 49 

Wliat is false taste but a want of perception to discern propriety 
and distinguish beauty ?' 1761. Golds:^ith, I., p. 321?. 

Por the sake of showing how beautiful even improprieties may be- 
come in the hands of a good writer. S. Johnson, V., p. 263. 

During the present century, in so far as the beautiful 
has been founded upon taste, taste itself has been sup- 
posed to consist chiefly of native sensibility. ^ ^thetic 
This makes the sense of the beautiful tend ^^^^§^- 
to pass over from an appreciation of many beauties 
bv means of taste, to the appreciation of a single beauty 
by means of certain fundamental and progressive forms 
of feeling. These forms of feeling, whether designated 
as imaginative or as the " artistic sense," are, as it 
were, the connecting link between pure aesthetic feel- 
ing and the more active artistic processes which give 
expression to this esthetic feeling. The beautiful is 
thus the most full and direct expression possible for 
pure aesthetic feeling. The progressive nature of this 
aesthetic feeling itself, however, as evidenced in mod- 
ern reahsm, keeps the question continually open as 
to whether or not the sense of the beautiful and the 
limits of literary art are at any given time exactly 
coextensive and identical with each other. 

Greek art is beautiful . . . l^ut Gotliic art is sublime. 1810. 
Coleridge, IY., p. 235. 

No great work should have many beauties : if it were perfect, it 
would have but one ; . . . tliat but faintly perceptible, except 
on *a view of the whole. 1817. Jeffrey, II., p. 172. 

What tlie imagination seizes as beauty must be truth, — whether 
it existed before or not, — for I have the same idea of all our 
passions as of love : they are all, in their subhme, creative of 
essential beauty. 1817. Keats, Letters, pp. 41, 42. 
4 



50 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

It may be interesting to you to pick out some lines from Hype- 
rion, and put a mark X to the i'alse beauty proceeding from art, 
and an i| to tlie true voice of feeling. 1819. Id , p. 321. 

The ideal is that which answers to tlie preconceived, and appetite 
in the mind for love and beauty. 1819. Hazlitt, Table Talk, 
p. 448. 

Poetic beauty in its pure essence ... is not derived from any- 
thing external, or of merely intellectual orighi ; not from associ- 
ation . . . nor from imitation, of similarity in dissimilarity, of 
excitement by contrast, or of seeing difficulties overcome. Un- 
derived from these it gives to them their principal charm. It 
dwells and is born in the inmost spirit of man. . . . 1827. 
Cahlyle, L, p. 47. 

Eiction has no business to exist unless it is more beautiful than 
reality. Certainly the monstrosities of fiction may be found in 
the bookseller's shops . . . but they have no place in literature, 
because in literature the one aim of art is the beautiful. Quoted 
from Joubert. M. Aenold, Cr. Es. 1st S., p. 292. 

Pope had a sense of the neat rather than of the beautiful. Low- 
ell, Prose Works, lY., p. 48. 

The world of the imagination is not the world of abstraction and 
nonentity, as some conceive, but a world formed out of chaos by 
a sense of the beauty that is in man and the earth on which he 
dwells. 1885. Id.,"'yI, p. 94. 

And further, all beauty is in the long run only finesse of truth. 
1886. Pater, Appreciations, p. 6. 
Becoming (lY.), cf. (XXII.) ^ : PLittenham, Landor. 

Such a play on words would be unbecoming. Laxdor, IY., p. 438. 
Biting (XIY.) : T. Newton, Whipple, El, Lit., p. 98. 
Bitter (XIY.) : JefPrey to present. 

Hichter's satire ... is never bitter, scornful, or malignant. De 
QrixcEY, XL p. 271. 
Bizarre (IX.) : Hume to present. 

Bizarre mixture of the serious and comic styles. Hume, I., p. 270. 

Bizarre and extraordinary. Jeffrey, II., p. 116. 

Bizarre or unnatural. Whipple, Lit. of Age of El., p. 232. 
Blithe (XYIIL): Stednian, Pater, p. 56. 

lUitlie, unstudied utterance. Stedman, Yic. Poets, p. 73. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 51 

Blundering (XIX.), cf. (II.) and (XVIII.) : Swinburne, Mis., 

p. 76. 
Blunt (Y.) : Ascliam to present. 

When tliey wrote, tlieir head was solitary, dull, and calm ; and so 
their style was blunt and their writing cold. Ascham, III., 
p. 210. 
Bluster (XIX.), cf. (XII.) : Whip, to present. 

Bluster or bombast. Whipple, Es. & Uev., II., p. 49. 
Body (XIII.) b: Swinburne, Mis , p. 9. 
Boisterous (XIX.) ^ ; cf. (XII): Saintsbury. 
Bold (XII.): Dryden to preseut. 

Bold and rhetorical style. D. Hume, I., p. 168. 
Bombastic (XIX.) : Puttenham to present. 

Pure simple bombast . . . arises from putting figurative expres- 
sion to an improper nse. Hurd, L, p. 103. 
Marlowe . . . constantly pushes grandiosity to the verge of bom- 
bast. Lowell, 0. E. D., p. 36. 
The rhetorical sublimity of their diction comes most perilously 
near the verge of bombast. Swinburne, A St. of B. Jonson, 
p. 58. 
Bon-Hiot (XVII.) : Watson was possessed of a most copious collec- 
tion of bon-mots, facetious stories, and humorous compositions of 
every kind. Wakeeield, in Literaria Centuria, Vol. I., p. 20. 
Bookish (VII.) : Whip, to present. 

The dialogue ... in Mosses from an Old Manse ... is bookish. 
Whipple, Char. & Char. Men, p. 226. 
Brave (XXII.) a : Beautify the same with brave devices. Webbe, 

p. 36. 
Brazen (XIX.) : Dryden's brazen rant. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., 

p. 43. 
Breadth (XIII.) b : Campbell to present. 

Breadth and comprehensiveness. Dowden, Shak., pp. ] 66-67. 
Brevity (XIX.) : Gascoigne to present. 

What is quickly said the mind readily receives and faithfully re- 
tains. Horace, Art of Poesy, p. 214. 
There is a briefness of the parts sometimes that makes the whole 
long. . . . Seneca may be impeached of this. B. Jonson, 
Timber, p. 70. 



52 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Bright (Y.) : Swiu. to present. 

The sweet pastoral strain, so bright, so tender. Dowden, Shak., 
p. 81. 
Brilliant (V.) : Hume to present. 

An over brilhant style obscures character and sentiment. Aris- 
totle, Poetics, p. 81. 
The brilliant fehcity of occasional images. De Quincey, XL, p. 337. 
Brisk (XYIII.) : Dryden to present. Swinburne, A St. of B. Jonson, 

p. 83. 
Brocaded (V.) : Gosse, Hist, of Eng. Lit., pp. 391-92. 
Broken (XIII.) : Dekker to present. 

A broken language . . . monosyllabic Dekker, III., p. 188. 
Brooding (XX.) d : Swinburne, Mis., p. 230. 
Brutish (XXII.) d : This brutish poetry. Webbe, p. 31. 
Bucolic (XXL) : Shelley to present. 

The bucolic and erotic delicacy in written poetry is correlative 
with that softness in statuary, music, and the kindred arts . . . 
which distinguished the later Grecian epoch. Shelley, Yll., 
pp. 118, 119. 
Flexible, bucolic hexameter. Stedman, Vic. Poets, p. 226. 
Buffoonery (XYIL) : Put. to present. 

Pord's cold and dry manner makes his buffoonery at once rancid 
and insipid. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 290. 
Buoyancy (XYIII.) : Whip. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 291. 
Burlesque (XVII.) : Rymer to present. 

The French had the like vicious appetite, and immoderate passion 

for vers burlesque. Rymer, 2d Pt., p. 10. 
Burlesque consists in a disproportion between the style and the 
sentiments, or between the adventitious sentiments and the fun- 
damental subject. S. Johnson, VIL, p. 155. 
Cacophonous (X.) : Lowell to present. 

Such cacophonous superlatives as '' virtuousest," "viciousest," 
etc. Lowell, Latest Lit. Essays, p. 105. 
Cadence (X.) : Keats to present. 

Long applied in theory to metrical form ; came to 
refer to the mental rlivthm and perhaps to a form of 
feeling; and tliiis acquired direct critical significance. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 53 

The cadence of one line must be a rule to that of the next. Dry- 
den, XII., p. 301. 

A certain musical cadence, or what vre call rhythm. Hued, II., 
p. 6. 

A cadence and symphony of suffering. Swixburne, Es. & St., 

p. 11. 

Calm (XIX.) : Hume to present. 

Composed, calm, and unconscious way. Jeffrey, I., p. 225. 
Candor (XIY.) : Gold, to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 27. 
Canorous (X.) : Lowell. 

The Latin has giyen us most of our canorous words, only tliev 
must not be confounded with merely sonorous ones. Lowell, 
Pr. III., p. 1S4. 
Cant (VII.) : Dekker to present. 

If there be not something very like cant in Mr. Carlyle's later 
writings, then cant is not the repetition of a creed after it has 
become a phrase. Lowell, IL, p. 97. 
Capacity (Y.) d : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 312. 
Capricious (XIX.) : T. TTarton. 

Irregular and capricious. Jeffrey, II. , p. 235. 
Careful (XIX.): Ros. Swinburne, Mis., p. 41. 
Careless (XIX.) or (11.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 49. 
Caricature (YIII.) : Scott to present. 

This exaggeration ... is not caricature, for caricature neyer gives 
the impression of reality. Whipple, Success, etc., p. 258. 
Catholic (XIY.) : Hallam to present. 

Catholic poetry . . . that which is good in all ages and countries. 
Hallam, III., p. 228. 
Caution (XIX.) : Jef., Swin. 

Caution, timidity, and flatness . . . of Addison. Jeffrey, L, p. 45. 
Changeful (II.) : Swinburne, Es. & St , p. 68. 
Chaotic (II.) : Lowell to present. 

The chaotic never pleases long. Lowell, Prose, III., p. 65. 
Dark and chaotic ... Blake. Rossetti, Pref. to Blake, p. cxiii. 
CHARACTER (YI ). 

Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
"characters" as employed in criticism denoted certain 



54 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

general traits, certaiji generic qualities of motive and 

disposition, — the word being usually found in the 

plural form, and referring to the personnel 
As general ^ o i 

types of Qf r^ drama. These general dramatic types 

2)erson(e, of cliaractcr were to a great extent an 
inheritance from literary precedent and custom. Cer- 
tain mental characteristics had been abstracted, per- 
sonified, and put into action. More definite charac- 
terization was wholly subordinated to plot complica- 
tion. " Character," thus indicating a given native 
bent of disposition, was both more inclusive in its 
meauing than the word " manners," and more funda- 
mental, more nearly related to the sources of motive 
and of conduct. 

Character, — that whereby we say the actors are of one kind or 

another. Aristotle, Poetics, p. 2]. 
Character, — is whatever shows choice. Id., p. 23. 
Beginners in composition succeed sooner in style and character 

than in arrangement of incident. . . . The plot then is the basis, 

and, as it were, the soul of tragedy, character coming next. 

Id., p. 23, 
Prom the manners, the characters of persons are derived; for in- 
deed the characters are no other than the inclinations, as they 
^ appear in the several persons of tlie poem; a character being 

thus defined, — that which distinguishes one man from another. 

1679. Dryden, VI., p. 269. 
The several manners which I liave given to tlie persons of this 

drama . . . are all perfectly distinguished from each other. 

1694. Id., YIIL, p. 374. 
The manners flow from the characters. Id., XY., p. 388. 
The fable is properly the poet's part, since — 

The characters are taken from Moral Philosophy, 

The thoughts or sense from Hhetoric, 

The expression from Grammar. Rymer, 2d Pt., pp. 86, 87- 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 55 

Since within the eighteenth century, there has been 
a constant growth in the conception of character toward 
specification, and the fullest porti-ayal possi- ^^ perscn- 
ble of motives and disposition. Character ^^* 
has come to represent personality, — tliat which dis- 
tinguishes one man from other men as in actual life, 
not that which distinguishes certain general types of 
literary representation. 

Nothing affects the heart like that which is purely from itself, and 
of its own nature ; such as the beauty of sentiments, the grace 
of actions, the turn of characters, and the proportions and fea- 
tures of a human mind. Shaftesbuey, L, p. 105. 

Cato . . . wants character, although that be not so essentially 
necessary to a tragedy as action. 1756. J. Wakton, p. 257- 

There is ... a little degradation of character for a more dra- 
matic turn of plot. 1830. Wordswohth, III., p. 303. 

In Shakespeare . . . the interest in the plot is always ... on 
account of the characters, not vice versa, as in almost all other 
writers. 1810. Coleridge, IV., p. 62. 

Character of two kinds . . . Generic, representative, symbolical, 
instructive; or specific, interesting. 1817. Id., III., p. 561. 

Cervantes is the father of the modern novel, in so far as it has 
become a study and delineation of character instead of being 
a narrative seeking to interest by situation and incident. 1885. 
Lowell, VI., p. 135. 
Charm (XXII.) b : Jeffrey to present. 

A noble miion of truth and charm. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 76. 
CHASTE (I.) or (XIX.) ^ ; CHASTITY. 

Correctness in the use of language, and moderation 
in figures of speech or mental imagery ; a careful and 
restrained method of expression, the result of delicate 
sensibility and pure taste. 

Sentiments chaste but not cold. Addison, I., p. 25i. 
Chaste and correct. J. Waeton, I., p. 258. 



56 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The chaste elegance of the following description . . . will gratify 

the lover of classical purity. T. Waiiton, p. 863. 
Critics have a habit of calling certain sorts of work "chaste"; not 
as indicating any quality of moral continence, but as implyiog 
the correctest and purest taste, unmixed Avith any license or 
audacity. Rossetti, Lives of Poets, p. 262. 
Chastised (XIX.) d : Chastised gravity of the sentiments. Jeephey, 

L, p. 393. 
Cheerful (XIY.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 30. 

Childish (XI.) : Childish and preposterous. Jeffrey, I., p. 212. 
Chiselled (V.) : Huskin to present. 

Tiie Dunciad is the most absolutely chiselled and monumental 
work "exacted'' in our country. Ruskin, Lectures on Art, 
pp. 86, 87. 
Choral (XXL) : Choral accompaniments to the performance. Jef- 
frey, IL, p. 129. 
Chosen (IV.) : Brooke, Tennyson, p. 251. 
Circuitous (XYIII.) : Hazlitt, Whipple. 
Circumstantial (YIIL) : d J. Warton to present. 

Circumstantial richness of description. Minto, Char, of Eug. 
Poets, p. 327. 
Clang (X.): Swinburne. High-ringing clang. Brooke, Tennyson, 

p. 130. 
Clangour (X.) : Clangour of sound. Saintsbury, Hist, of Pr. Lit., 

p. 213. 
Clarion-versed (X.) : Brooke, Tennyson, p. 308. 
Clarity (III.) : Swinburne. Clarity of statement and reflection. 

GossE, Seventeenth Cent St., p. 298. 
Clashing (X.) : Bugged, clanging, clashing lines. Brooke, Ten., 

p. 274. 
CLASSICAL (XIX )^. 

The term " classical " appeared in English criticism 
about the middle of the eighteenth century. Though 
As the there are no definitely marked periods in its 

classic. liistory, five more or less distinct shades of 

meaning may perhaps be distinguished in the use of 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 57 

the term. Occasionally the term merely represents 
the literature of Greece and Rome, whatever was then 
and there written and has in any manner )3een trans- 
mivtted to us. In this sense of the term, the " classi- 
cal " is found opposed to the " Gothic," but the opposi- 
tion between the terms is not essential or philosophical, 
— they are not really exclusive of each other. 

Carnbuscaii is a compositioD, Ti'bicli at tlie same time abuudantly 
demonstrates that the manners of romance are better calculated 
to ansvver the purposes of pure poetry, to captivate the imagi- 
nation, and to produce surprise, than the fictions of classical 
antiquity. 177S. T. Wartox, H. E. P., p. 2S7. 

This fatal result of an enthusiasm for classical literature was hast- 
ened and heightened by the raisdirection of the powers of art. 
The imagination of the age was actively set to realize these ob- 
jects of Pagan belief. lS4f3. Ruskix, St. of V., II., p. 133. 

Yery frequently in actual criticism the term *• clas- 
sical" has been used to represent those literary prin- 
ciples or qualities which are tliought to be ^ ^-^^ ^^^_ 
characteristic of the literary compositions the^Sicient^^ 
of the ancient classics, — of those ancient 
authors who are firmly established in public esteem. 

Classical purity. 1756. J. TTartox, I., p. 1S5. 

A writer so pure, sensible, and classical as Boileau. Id., II., 
p. 393. 

Surrey for his justness of thought, correctness of style, and purity 
of expression, may justly be pronounced the first Euglish clas- 
sical poet. 177S. T. Wartox, Hist. E. P., p. 645. 

Elegant and classical. Blaik, Rhet., p. 116. 

Classical harmony of parts. 1S19. Campbell, I., p. 97- 

The great difference, then, which we find between the classical and 
romantic style, between ancient and modern poetry, is, that the 
one more frequently describes things as they are interesting in 



58 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

themselves^ the other for the sake of the associations of ideas 
counected with them ; that the one dwells more on the immedi- 
ate iaipressions of objects on the senses^ the other on the ideas 
which tliey suggest to the imagination. The one is the poetry 
of form, the other of effect. 1820. Hazlitt, Ag. of EL, p. 
246. 

Milton's place is fixed as the most classical of our poets. 1872. 
Lowell, IY., p. 80. 

Classic elegance, polish, and correctness. 1881. T. Arnold, 
Man. of E. L., p. 306. 

Occasionally the '' classical " denotes the characteris- 
tic qualities of all literary classics, whether of ancient or 
As the char- of modern times, — of all authors who from 

actci'istlcs of 

au classics, their permanent influence are thought to 
embody the more essential principles of literary art. 

The problem is to express new and profound ideas in a perfectly 
sound and classical style. He is the true classic in every age 
who does that. 1865. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 65„ 

To get rid of provinciality is a certain stage of culture ; a stage the 
positive result of which we must not make of too much impor- 
tance, but which is nevertheless indispensable, for it brings us 
on to the platform where alone the best and highest intellectual 
work can be said fairly to begin. "Work done after men have 
reached this platform is classical; and that is the only work 
which in the long run can stand. 1865. Id., p. 61. 

Classical lucidity, measure, propriety, sobriety, temperance, sou), 
simplicity, delicacy, truth, grace, sureness. Id , pp 65-76. 

Out of an atmosphere of all-pervading oddity and quaintness arises 
a work really ample and grand, nay, classical, by virtue of the 
effectiveness with which it fixes a type in literature ; as indeed, 
at its best, romantic literature in every period attains classical 
quality, giving true measure of those well-worn critical distinc- 
tions. 1886. Pater, Appreciations, p. 161. 

In whatever style an artist works, the style will be classical, pro- 
vided the work itself be good, sincere, and representative of 
sterhng thought. J. A. Symonds, Es., Sp. & Sug., p. 225. 



A HISTORY OF EX GUSH CRITICAL TERMS. 59 

Frequently in theoretical discussion, during the pres- 
ent century, and occasionally in applied criticism, the 
'- classical " and the '* romantic " have been . ^. ^ 

As the non- 

placed in an antithesis with each other, ^^^^tic. 
which is intended to be real and philosophical, each 
term being mutually complementary and exclusive of 
the other one. However, the historical and the philo- 
sophical antitheses between the two terms are constantly 
confused with each other, and the real distinctions 
between the terms are only approximately drawn. The 
'' classical " requires a more temperate use of energy, 
of passion, of imagination, of all the mental activities 
that are brought into play in literary idealization 
than the "romantic." At its best the "classical" rep- 
resents self-restraint of the literary and idealizing ener- 
gies ; at its worst, a restraint imposed by custom and 
precedent. 

The characteristic of the classical literature is the simpKcity with 
which the imagiuatiou appears in it ; that of modern literature 
is the profusion with which the most various adornments of 
the accessory fancy are thrown and lavished upon it. 1S56. 
Bagehot, Lit. St., I., p. lis. 

There is one play, and only one, of his epoch that is not classic 
and is not romantic, but speaks independently the truest and 
best mind of the eighteenth century itself in its own form and 
language. That play is Nathan the Wise. 1S78. J. Mokley, 
Diderot, I., p. 347- 

Qualities of measure, purity, temperance, of which it is the espe- 
cial function of classical art and literature, whatever meaning, 
narrower or wider, we attach to the term, to take care. 1S86. 
Pateii, Ap., p. 217. 

The charm, therefore, of what is classical, in art or literature, is 
tiiat of the well-known tale, to which we can, nevertheless, listen 
over and over again, because it is so well told. Id., p. 217- 



60 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Occasionally, when placed in opposition to the " ro- 
As the con- niantic," the " classical " has been made to 
ventionai. signify the well-worn, the conventional, the 
pedantic. 

Classical and artificial. 1825. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 154. 

Irish oratory ... is romantic, Scotch oratory . . . classical. The 
one may be disciplined and its excesses sobered down into rea- 
son; bnt the dry and rigid formality of the otlier can never burst 
the shell or husk of oratory. Id., pp. 256, 257. 

Classicism, then, means for Stendhal, for that younger enthusias- 
tic band of Erench writers whose unconscious method he formu- 
lated into principles, the reign of what is pedantic, conventional, 
and narrowly academical in art; for liim, all good art is roman- 
tic. 1890. Pater, Ap., p. 262. 
Clean (I.) : Puttenham to present. 

I. Until the present century, the term '' clean " de- 
noted purity of language, or chastity of language and 
thouo'ht. 

o 

More curiously than cleanly. Puttenham, p. 28. 
The language ... of Waller's poem on the Navy ... is clean 
and majestic, Rymee, 2d Pt., p. 79. 

IT. During the present century, the term has repre- 
sented moral purity. 

Vulgarity of its flat and stale uncleanliness. Swinburne, Mis., 
p. 86.' 
Clear-cut (ni.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 51. 
CLEARNESS (III). 

The term '' clearness," representing a general effect 
which the composition produces on the mind of the 
From gram- reader, — the ready and vivid comprehen- 

matical con- 
struction, sion of the tliought expressed, — has natu- 
rally varied in meaning according as criticism has 
been especially occupied now with one part of the 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL T^RMS. 61 

composition and now with another. In early English 
criticism, and occasionally even to the present time, 
'' clearness " was thought to result chiefly from an 
apt choice of single words, and from exactness in the 
grammatical construction of the composition. 

Haleigh ... is full of proper, clear, and courtly graces of speech. 
1610. Bolton, Hypercritica, p. 249. 

Lydgate's manner is naturally verbose and diffuse. This circum- 
stance contributed in no small degree to give a clearness and a 
fluency to his phraseology. 177S. T. Wahtox, Hist. E. P., 
p. 353. 

During the greater part of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries, '' clearness " was thought to be 
attained chieflv bv the methodic arrans-e- ^ , . , 

" '' ^ From logical 

ment of the language and of the thought construction, 
of a composition. It was rpjestioned, however, whether 
this was always the more ]. oetical or effective method 
of statement. 

In a style that expressed such a grave and so humble a majesty 
with such clear demonstration of reason. 1670. AYaltox, 
Lives, p. 181. 

It is one thing to make an idea clear, and another to make it af- 
fecting to the imagination. 1756. Bueke, Vol. I., pp. 90, 91. 

A clear idea is another name for a little idea. Id., p. 93. 

Dryden expresses with clearness what he thinks with vigor. 17S1. 
S. Johnson, YII., p. 307. 

During the present century, '- clearness " sometimes 
From mental ^^^^ distinct reference to mental imagery, and 
imagery. ^^ ^j^^ process of the mind by which it is 
called into existence. 

Artistic ability is co-ordinate with the clearness and staying power 
of the imagination. 1875. Stedman, Nat. of Poetry, p. 233. 



62 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

More frequently the term has been employed to in- 
dicate the agreement of the literary statements with 
From corre- the facts which they are supposed to repre- 

spondence to 

fact. sent. The apparently clear statement is 

often found to be most obscure and incomprehensible 
when the premises and assumptions are examined in 
the light of the facts of actual experience. There is 
said to be a superficial or apparent clearness, and a 
fundamental or real clearness. 

In every department of eloquence, and particularly in poetry, we 
look for depth and clearness; a clearness that shows depth. 
1824. Landoe, IL, p. 415. 

In Macaulay's History of England . . . everything is plain; all is 
clear ; nothing is doubtful. Instead of probability being, as the 
great thinker expressed it, the very guide of life, it has become 
a rare exception, an uncommon phenomenon. You rarely come 
across anything which is not decided. . . . This is hardly the 
style for history. . . . History is a vestige of vestiges ; few facts 
■ leave any trace of themselves, any witness of their occurrence. 
1856. Bagehot, II., p. 256. 

Clearness is so eminently one of the characteristics of truth that 
often it even passes for truth itself. 1865. M. Aenold, Cr. 
Es., 1st S., pp. 283, 281. 

Macaulay's writing passes for being admirably clear, and so ex- 
ternally it is; but often it is really obscure, if one takes his 
deliverances seriously, and seeks to find in them a definite 
meaning ... a distinct substantial meaning. Id., Mixed E., 
p. 181. 
Clench f XVII.) : Withers, Dry., Johnson. 

A play upon words ; a pun. 

Clinches, anagrammatical fancies, or such like verbal or literal con- 
ceits. Withers, in Spenser Society Series, vol. 26, Pt. I., 
pp. 15, 16. 

Shakespeare ... is many times flat and insipid; his comic wit 
degenerating into clenches. S. Johnson, Y., p. 153. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 63 

Clever (Y.) b: Jef. to present 

Clever and original writer. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 67. 
Clinquant (V.): Saintsburj, Eng. Prose Style, p. xix. 
Cloudy (III.) : Swin. to present. 

Cloudy vagueness. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 413. 
Cloying (XXII.) b: Jeffrey to present. 

Cloying perhaps in the uniformity of its beauty. Jeffrey, III., 
p. 136. 

Cloying sentimentalism. Lowell, Prose, II., p. 145. 
Clumsy (II.): T. Warton to present. 

Cumbrous and clumsy. Wilson, YIIL, p. 44. 

German clumsiness. Howells, Crit. and Eiction, p. 22. 
Clownish (XIX.) : Webbe. 

Club-footed (XVIII.): Walton's lyrics are mechanical and club- 
footed. Lowell, Latest Lit. Es., p. 70. 
Coarse (V.) : Webbe to present. 

Lack of refinement ; strength rather than delicacy of 
feeling. 

Chaucer's style may seem blunt and coarse. Webbe, p. 32. 
This very coarseness of iibre, added to Yanbrugh's great sincerity 
as a writer, gives his best scenes a wonderful air of reality. 
GossE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 68. 
Cogency (XXII.) d : J. Warton, Blair. 
COHERENCE (XIII.) : Dryden to present. 

The term has at times been employed to indicate a 

continuity of sound, of ideas, and of plot incidents ; but 

usually it refers to the composition as a whole. 

A compactness and coherence of language. Cicero, Orators, 

p. 383, 
In the best conducted fiction, some mark of improbabihty and 
incoherency will still appear. J. Warton, L, p. 250. 
Cold (XY.): Ascliam to present. 

Either a deficiency or extravagance of emotion. 

Cold . . . without imagination or sensibility. Hallam, IV., 
p. 305. 



64 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Cold-blooded (XY.) : Jef. to present. 

Cold-blooded ribaldry. Jeffrey, II., p. 125. 
Colloquial (I.) : J. Wartoii to present. 

A free and colloqnial air. J. TYarto^^", II. , p. 9. 
COLOR (V.) a. 

The history of the term " color " may be divided into 
two periods. Until vrithin the eighteenth century, 
As figurative '' ^^^^^''' usually referred to the figurative 
language. ^^^^ ^£ single words ; occasionally to more 
extended figures of speech. 

Just colours, good rlivme, etc. 1585. Iv. James, p. 57. 

Yirgil niaketli a brave coloured complaint of unsteadfast friendship. 
I5S6. Webbe, p. 53. 

Now the words are the colouring of the work, which in the order 
of nature is last to be considered. . . . "Words indeed, like 
glaring colours, are the first beauties that arise and strike the 
sight; but if the draught be false or lame, the figures ill-ilis- 
posed, the manners obscure or inconsistent, or the tiioughts 
unnatural, then the finest colours are but daubing, and the 
piece is a beautiful monster at the best. 1699. Dryden, 
XL, p. 216. 

During the present century, the term '^ color" has 
steadily increased in use, and it has been employed in 
As vivid three more or less distinct ways. Frequently 
imagery. ^^ signifies word painting, — the vivid por- 
trayal of single images, which, like a picture, seem 
filled with all tlie colors of the actual scenes repre- 
sented, and thus literally give color to the composition 
itself. This use of the term was prefigured during the 
eigliteenth century in the discussion of the pictorial 
effect of the imao:ination. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 65 

The poets who are always addressing themselves to the imaghia- 
tion, borrow more of their epithets from colours than from any 
other topic. 1712. Addison, III., p. 400. 

Colouring of the imagination. Hume, I., p. 278. 

Poetry is a species of painting. . . . The poet, instead of simply 
relating the incident, strikes off a glowing picture of the scene, 
and exhibits in the most lively colours to the eye of the imagi- 
nation. 1761. GOLDSMITM, I., p. 354. 

The contrast was remarkable between the uncolored style of his 
general diction and the brilhant felicity of occasional images, 
embroidered upon the sober ground of his text. 1845. De 
QuiNCEY, XL, p. 337. 

Richness, color, warmth. M. Aunold, Mixed Es., p. 218. 

All Chaucer's works are full of bright colour, fresh feeling. 1874. 
MiNTO, Char, of E. P., p. 29. 

More usually "color" represents a general brilliancy 
of thought and imagery in a composition,— ^g ij^iiiiancy 
imagery which is associative and illustrative ®^ ^^•^^^' 
rather than concentrated into single glowing pictures. 

Where one idea gives a tone and colour to others. 1818. Haz- 

LiTT, Eng. Poets, p. 16. 
The colours (in Gibbon's '^Decline, etc.") are gorgeous like those of 

the setting sun; and such were wanted. 1826. Landoe, TV., 

p. 95. 
Cowley's want of colour . . . recommended him to the classic 

poets. 1888. GossE, Hist. Eng. Lit., Ill, p. 6. 

Occasionally the term denotes an imagi- ^^ exagger- 
native overstatement of fact. ^^^^* 

Colours of poetical ingenuity. Hazlitt, Eliz. Lit., p. 110. 
A poetical colouring of facts. Wilson, Y., p. 388. 
COMEDY (XXL). 

I. Previous to the present century, " comedy " was 

the representation of manners, customs, and incidentally 

of character, the plot having an agreeable outcome. 

5 



66 A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Some have made it a question v/lietlier comedy be poetry at all. 

for there is uo inspiration and vigour either in the diction or 

the subjects. Horace, p. 115. 
Comedy is no more at present than a well-framed tale handsomely 

told as an agreeable vehicle for counsel or reproof. Earquhar's 

"Love and Business/' 1702. Gosse, H. E. Lit., p. 72. 
And my idea of comedy requires only that the pathos be kept in 

subordination to the manners. 1751. Hukd, II., p. 95. 
To please our curiosity and perhaps our mahgnity by a faithful 

representation of manners is the purpose of comedy. To excite 

laughter is the sole . . . aim of farce. 1763. Gibbox, TV., 

p. iu. 

Comedy was used all through the Ehzabethan age in a loose sense, 
which would embrace anything between a tragi-comedy and a 
farce. Thus the Merchant of Venice is reckoned among the 
comedies of Shakespeare. T. Arxold, Man. of Eug. Lit., 
p. 49S. 

II. During the present century, ''comedy" is the 
representation of manners, and perhaps of character, 
so as to appear ridiculous, — tlie corrective or reform- 
ing influence being subordinated to this. 

It is . . . the criticism wliich the stage exercises upon pubhc 
manners that is fatal to comedy, by rendering the subject 
matter of it tame, correct, and spiritless. Hazlitt, The Eound 
Table, p. 11. 
Comedy, as the reflex of social life, Avill shift in correspondence 
to the shifting movements of civilization. De Quincey, X., 
p. 312. 
Comely (XXII.) ^: Gas., Put., Webbe. 
COMIC-AL (XYIL). 

A comprehensive expression for the laughable or 
humorous, and more dh'ect in its application than the 
noun ''comedy," Indicative of acuteness and subtlety; 
often, during the present century, of sympathy also. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 67 

A ramble of comical wit . . . iu Otliello. Rymer, 2d Pt., p. 146. 

A certain tincture of the pitiable makes comic distress more irre- 
sistible. Campbell, Vol. I., p. 71. 
Commerage: The commerage of the letters of Walpole. Saints- 

BUHY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxvi. 
Common (IX.) : J. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 12. 
COMMONPLACE (IX.) : Dryden to present. 

I. Until within the eighteenth century, the word 
'' commonplace '' was often employed in a technical 
sense to denote certain universally admitted facts or 
truths, which could be made the basis for argument, 
or the means for setting forth a moral lesson. 

To dwell in Epitomes and books of common places . . . maketh 
so many seeming and sunburnt ministers as we liave. Ascham, 
III., p.' 201. 

Christ could as well have given the moral commonplace ... of 
disobedience and mercy, as that heavenly discourse of the lost 

. child and the gracious father . . . but that his through-search- 
ing wisdom knew . . . that it would more constantly . . . in- 
habit both the memory and judgment. Sidney, pp. 17, 18. 

II. More recently the term has represented that 
which is common, trite, and well known. Often this 
has been regarded as the foundation of literary truth ; 
its more clear and vivid apprehension marking tlie 
culmination of literary art. 

To restore a commonplace truth to its first uncommon lustre, you 
need only translate it into action. But to do this, you must 
have reflected on its truth. Coleridge, I., p. 117. 

Tlie eternal grandeur of commonplace and all-time truths, which 
ai^ the staple of all poetry. Wilson, VL, p. 117. 

Exaltation of the commonplace tln'ough the scientific spirit in 
realism. Howells, Crit. and Fiction, p. 16. 



68 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

III. More often, however, the commonplace, as such, 
has not been considered as fit material for literature ; 
it represents the unrefined, the unimpassioned, the 
stale, the insipid. 

Thompson abounds in sentimental commonplaces. Wordsworth, 

II., p. 119. 
Nothing can be farther from the stale commonplace and cuckooism 
of sentiment than the philanthropic eloquence of Cowper. 
Campbell, L, p. 42S. 
The love scenes are . . . gross and commonplace. Hazlitt, Age 

of EL, p. 113. 
To take the passion out of a novel is something like taking the 
sunlight out of a landscape ; and to condemn all the heroes to 
be utterly commonplace is to remove the centre of interest in 
a manner detrimental to the best interests of the story. Ste- 
phen, Hrs. in a Library, I., p. 239. 
Compact (XIIl.) : J. War. to present. 
Compass (Xlll.) : De Quin. to present. 
Competence (XXII.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 137. 
Complete (Xlll.) : Wilson, YL, p. 131. 

Complex (III.) : De Quin. to present. De Quincey, X., p. 149. 
Complication (II.) : Of plot, and resolution. Moulton, Shak., 

etc., p. 661. 
Composed (XIX.) d : Jef. to present. 

Composed, calm, and unconscious way. Jeefrey, L, p. 225. 
Composite (XIIL): Haz., Saints, 

Sir James Macintosh may claim the foremost rank among those 
who pride themselves on artilicial ornaments and acquired learn- 
ing, or who write what may be termed a composite style. Haz- 
litt, Sp. of Age, p. 178. 
Comprehensive (Xlll.) : J. War. to present. 

Comprehensiveness ... of Sliakespeare's Historical plays. Dow- 
den, Shak., etc., p. 167. 
Compression (XIX.): Lan. to present. 

Compressed manner. M. Arnold, Celtic Lit., etc., p. 207 
CONCEIT (XXIIL). 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 69 

Until the beginning of the eighteenth century, '' con- 
ceit," as used in criticism, denoted in general the power 

of the mind to combine and recombine the 

As conceptioi!. 

elements given in experience, especially when 
the combinations from their novelty or beauty gave rise 
to aesthetic pleasure. Noveltv, however, in such com- 
binations usually dominated the sense of beauty, and 
hence conceits during this period ceased to be synony- 
mous with thought in general, or with imaginative 
thought, and came to be closely related in meaning to 
a witticism, or to mere fancy. '^Conceit" during this 
period w^as very seldom employed as an active critical 
term. 

Conceit of wit. 1580. Hativey, p. 48. 

That high-flying liberty of conceit proper to the poet. 1583. Sid- 

NEY, pp. 5, 6. 
We must prescribe to no writers (much less to poets) in what sort 

they should utter their conceits. 15 8 G. Webbe. 
The namber is voluble and fit to express any amorous conceit. 

Campiox, p. 254. 
This letter was wiit in such excellent Latin, was so full of con- 
ceits, and all the expressions so suited to the genius of the king, 

etc. 1678. Waltox, Lives, p. 235. 
When he aimed at wit in the stricter sense, that is, sharpness of 

conceit. ]670. Dbydex, IV., p. 237. 
A miserable conceit tickling you to laugh. 1099. Id., YIIL, 

p. 374. 

During the eighteenth and the present centiuy, '^ con- 
ceit" has indicated strange combinations of ideas or of 

images, which seem to be made for the sake . . . ^ 

As far-fetched 
of the strangeness, and which have no essen- comparisons. 

tial relations with each other either from the aesthetic 



70 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

or practical point of view. Usually a conceit consists 
of a too great elaboration of a real analogy, — an elab- 
oration so great, in fact, that the real analogy is wholly 
lost sight of in view of the elaboration. During these 
two centuries, ''conceit" has been in general a term 
of condemnation, though often some adjective prefixed, 
such as " forced " or " far-fetched," is necessary in 
order to give to it this negative force. 

If defective, or unsound in the least part, the metLodical style 
must of necessity lead us to the grossest absurdities, and stitf- 
est pedantry and conceit. Shaftesbury, I., p. 202. 

Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only need- 
less, but impairs what it would improve. 1706. Pope, YI., 
p. 51. 

Some to conceit alone their taste confine. 

And glittering thoughts strike out at every line. 

1711. Id., II., p. 50. 

Puerile and far-fetched conceit. 1756. J. Warton, L, p. 8. 

Forced conceits, . . . violent metaphors, . . . swelling epithets. 
Id., IL, p. 21. 

Puns and conceits. T. Wartox, H. E. P., p. 647. 

With men like Earle, Donne, Puller, Butler, Marvell, and even 
Quarles, conceit means wit ; they would carve the merest 
cherry-stone of thought in the quaintest and delicatest fashion. 
But with duller and more painful writers, such as Gascoigne, 
. . . where they insisted on being fine, their wit is conceit. 
1858-64. Lowell, Lit. Es., I., p. 303. 

Now when this kind of thing is done in earnest, the result is one 
of those ill distributed syllogisms which in rhetoric are called 
conceits. 1868. Id., III., p. 53. 

The novel is not only in itself . . . unfriendly to the pompous 
style, but it happened to attract . . . the great genius of Field- 
ing, which was from nothing so averse ... as from . . . pre- 
tension, pedantr}^ or conceit. Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. St., 
p. xxvi. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 71 

Conceited (VII.): Camp, to present. 

The conceited Spanisli-Frencb. style. Saixtsbue.y, Hist. Er. Lit., 
p. 293. 
Concentrated (XIX.) : Lan. to present. 

Lucretius' . . . poetry is masculine, plain, concentrated, and 
energetic. La^'dok, IY., p. 525. 
Concinnity (IV.) : Lowell. 

Marlowe's Hero and Leander has . . . many lines as perfect in 
their concinnity as those of Pope. Lowell, 0. E. D., p. 52. 
Concise (XIX.) : Bacon to present. 

Poetry . . . must be more intense in meaning and more concise 
in style than prose. Ba&ehot, Lit. St., II., p. 351. 
Concrete (YIIL) b: Pater to present. 

Concrete imagery of Blessed Damozel. Patee, Ap., etc., p. 215. 
Condensed (XIX.) : Cole, to present. 

Results either from careful selection, or from intensity 
of feeling. 

Crabbe's . . . great selection and condensation of expression. 

Jeffeey, IL, p. 276. 
There is no enthusiasm, no energy, no condensation, nothing 

which springs from strong feeling, nothing which tends to 

excite it. 1S2L Macaulay, IY., p. 3S1. 
Shakespeare's sonnets are hot and pothery ; there is much con- 
densation, little delicacy. LA^'DOR, IY., p. 51-2. 
Goldsmith was a great, perhaps an unequalled, master of the 

arts of selection and condensation. 1S56. Macaulay, IY., 

p. 51. 
Confused (II.) : Ascham to present 

Order helps much to perspicuity as confusion hurts. B. Jonsox, 

Timber, p. 63. 
Congenial (XIY.) : Congenial ease ... of Pepjs. Gosse, Hist. 

Eng. Lit., III., p. SO. 
CONGRUITY (IY.). 

Until the present century, ^' congniity " was often 
employed in conjunction with the term '•' propriety," 



72 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

with which it was \eyy nearly identical in meaning. 
The sense of the congruous, however, was perhaps more 
As artistic concentrated, definite, and distinct than the 
propriety. geuse of propriety ; it was more immediate in 
its action, and in a sense more spontaneous ; it was the 
first flash of recognition of a propriety between specific 
features of a composition. As referring not to the 
mental process, but to the completed literary product, 
the two terms are exactly synonymous. 

A solecism or incongruity. 1585. Puttenham, p. 258. 

Shakespeare, to enricli his scene with that variety which his exu- 
berant genius so largely supplied, hath deformed his best plays 
with prodigious incongruities. 174^9. Hued, I., p. 69. 

During the present century, " congruity " has repre- 
As ethical scnted the moral sense of symmetry and 
harmony. proportion in literature, the unusual or un- 
expected violation of which produces the ridiculous or 
the humorous. 

Wit is the clash and reconcilement of incongruities. 1846. Hunt, 
Wit and Humour, p. 8. 

Humor in its first analysis is a perception of the incongruous, 
and in its highest development of the incongruity between the 
actual and the ideal in men and life. 1866. Lowell, II., p. 
97. 

The same want of humor which made Wordswortli insensible to 
incongruity may perhaps account also for the singular uncon- 
sciousness of disproportion which so often strikes us in his 
poetry. 1875. Id., IV., p. 410. 

Tragic incongruity arises from the disproportion between the world 
and the soul of man ; life is too small to satisfy the soul. . . . 
The comic incongruity is the reverse of this. Dowden, Sli., 
liis Mind & Art. p. 351. 
Conscientious (XIV.): lies., Swinburne, Es. & St. p. 86. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 73 

Conscious (YII.) : S. John, to present. 

Where au uuconscious energy unites itself in the artist Tvitli liis 
conscious activity, and tliese interpenetrate one another, the 
work of art conies forth. Dowden, St. in Lit., pp. 408, 409. 

Consentaneity (IT.) : In the poems of Wordsworth, which are 
most distinctively Wordsworthian, there is an entire consen- 
taneity of thought and feeling. Dowdex, St. in Lit., p. 127- 

Consistency (XIIL), cf. (XIY.) : Eymer to present. 

Adaptation of the parts of a composition to each 
other so as to produce uniformity of tone and unity 
of impression. 

Ben Jonson's plots are improbable by an excess of consistency. 

Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 51. 
One-ness, that is to say, consistency in the general impression, 

metrical and moral, HrxT, Imagination and Fancy, p. 33. 
Shakespeare alone . . . made a world-wide variety of character 

and incident consistent with oneness of impression. Whipple, 

Lit. of Age of EL, p. 120. 
Conspicuous (XYL), cf. (IX.): Jef., Stephen. Jeffrey, XL, 

p. 21:7. 

Constrained (XYIII.) : K. James to Carlyle. 

The hiatus is smoother, less constrained, and so preferable to the 
caesura. Pope, YL, p. 113. 
Constructive (XXIII.) : Saintsbury. 

Eour requisites for a poet . . . creativeness, constructiveness, the 
sublime, the pathetic. Laxdou, YIIL, p. 419. 
Consummate (XXII.): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 
Contemplative (XX.) ^ : Jef., Hos. Jeffrey, II., p. 451. 
Continuity (XIII.) : Lan. to present. 

Connected ; blended and fused into a close emotional 
unity. 

Continuous . . . united by means of connectives. Aristotle, 

Ehet., p. 229. 
The musical in sound is the sustained and continuous ; the musical 



74 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

in tliouglit is the sustained and continuous also. Hazlitt, Eng. 

Poets, p. 16. 
The rhythmical, the continuous, what in French is called the sou- 

teiiu, De Quincey, IIL, p. 51. 
Contorted (II.) : Cole., Car. 
Conventional (IV.) : J. War. to present. 

Wordsworth has much conventional sentiment. Pater, Ap., 

p. 38. 
Conversational: Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. Style, p. 18. 
Convincing (XXri.)6: H. James, Partial Portraits, pp. 251, 252. 
Convolution (11.) : Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 42. 
Copious (XL) b\ Put. to present. 

Homer's diction, contrary to what one would imagine consistent 

with simplicity, is at the same time very copious. Pope, VL, 

p. 13. 
Copy (XL) h : T. WiL, B. Jon. 

There is a great difference between those that, to gain the opinion 

of copy, utter all they can, however unfitly ; and those that use 

election and a mean. B. Joxson, Pref. to Alcheuiist. 
Cordial (XIV.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. G7. 
CORRECTNESS (I). 

" Correctness " denotes in general a conformity in 
literature to the known laws of language and to the 
established rules of composition. The term thus refers 
primarily to the form of expression rather than to the 
thought, and represents a method of restraining or 
controlling the immediate movement in tlie develop- 
ment of language by means of past literary attainments. 
The history of the term may be divided into three 
periods. 

Until the middle of the eighteenth century, ''cor- 
rectness " was one of the chief active terms of criticism. 
As exact In the advertising phrase, " corrected and 

methodic n 9? i • i "^ 

composition, enlarged, which was so oiten placed on the 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. lb 

title page of the early dramas, '' corrected " perhaps 
signified merely that the drama had been revised, es- 
pecially its language, so as to be more intelligible and 
acceptable than it had been hitherto. But in all such 
revision there was a constant tendency to '• correct " 
irregularities of all kinds, whether caused by overhaste 
or by the moulding influence of the inspiration which 
had given to the drama its literary value. •* Correct- 
ness," as referring to versification, denoted metrical 
regularity, or at least variation of meter according to 
method and rule. '^ Correct," as referring to the drama, 
indicated a conformity to certain traditional rules of 
plot construction. The term, in short, denoted exact- 
ness in language and method in composition, and even 
the most ardent disciples of •* correctness " recognized 
that it was opposed to the onward movement of lit- 
erary sympathy and appreciation. 

AU language has three kinds of excellence, to be correct, perspicu- 
ous, and elegant. Quintilian, I. p. 37. 
Jonson is the more correct poet, but Shakespeare is the greater 

wit. 1668. Drydex, XY., p. 3i7. 
Correct plotting . . . and decorum of the stage. 1670. Deydex, 

Yol. lY. 
It is to criticism that the sacred authors themselves owe their 

highest purity and correctness. SHAriESBURY, III., p. 1S6. 
Correctly cold. 1711. Pope, IL, p. iS. 
Blot out, correct, insert, refine. 
Enlarge, diminish, interline : 
Be mindful when invention fails. 
To scratch your head and bite your nails. 

SwiET, XIY., p. 303. 

From about the middle of the eighteenth century 
until within the first few decades of the present cen- 



76 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

turj, " correct," though fast passmg out of favor, was 
still an active term in criticism. Attempts Avere made 
in two ways to modify the intensely conservative na- 
ture of the term. 
A . ^o. Occasionallv the term was applied directly 

As accuracy ^ - ^ •^ 

to fact. |.Q ^i^g thought of a composition, indicating 

truthfulness to the historical fact represented. 

Nature in awe to Him 
Had dofpfc lier gawdv trim. 

(Milton, On the Nativity.) 
This is incorrect ... it was wdnter. 1756. J. Wauton, I., 

p. 39. 
Truth and correctness. Hued, I., pp. 70, 71. 
Shakespeare . . . the most correct of poets. Coleridge, IV., 
p. 65. 

More usually, in so far as the term was thought to 

represent any positive literary merit at all, it indicated 

a certain moderation of tone in literature, 

As economy ' 

effiSency^^^ which, by being adapted exactly to the taste 
saemen. ^^ ^j^^ audience addressed, gave evidence of 
great skill, and perhaps produced as great an effect as 
could be attained by more spontaneous and irregular 
methods of composition. 

Correct mediocrity, which distinguislies tlie lyric poetry of the 
Erench. 1756. J. Wartois^ I., p. 66. 

The early productions of Pope were perhaps too finished, correct, 
and pure. Id., I., p. 83. 

Correctness is a vague term, frequently used without meaning and 
precision. The Erench critics declare that the English writers 
are generally incorrect. If correctness implies an absence of 
petty faults, this perhaps may be granted ; if it means a just 
economy in fables, the notion is groundless and absurd. Id., 
I., p. 196. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 77 

It is . . . the criticism which the stage exercises upon public 
manners that is fatal to comedy, by rendering the subject mat- 
ter of it tame, correct, and spiritless. 1817. Hazlitt, The 
Round Table, p. 11. 

His imagination . . . unrestrained by a correct judgment. 1818. 
BuYAXT, L, p. 52. 

Correctness . . . is . . . skill. ... In this sense, Scott, "Words- 
worth, and Coleridge are far more correct poets than Pope or 
Addison. 1830. AIacaulay, I., p. 470. 

Coldly and stiffly, though correctly and classically. 1830. Wil- 
sox, Y., p. 362. 

During the greater part of the present century the 
term "correct" has not been applied to current liter- 
ature, but has been employed as a means for ^ retrospec- 
explaining the literature of the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries, especially the writings of 
Dry den and Pope. As a retrospective term, the mean- 
ing of ''correctness" has been determined, not from 
what the term signified to Dryden and Pope themselves, 
but from what, as seen in their writings, the general 
effect of " correctness " is, when it is made the central 
and organizing principle of literature. The modern 
interpretations of ''correctness" are more general and 
psychological, and refer more to the thought of the 
composition tlian did " correctness " as understood in 
the times of Dryden and Pope. 

A mind always intent on correctness is apt to be dissipated in 
trifles. LoxGixus, p. 63. 

It is an error that Pope's distinction consisted in correctness. . . . 
Of all poets that have practiced reasoning in verse. Pope is the 
most inconsequential in the deduction of his thoughts, and the 
most severely distressed in any efPort to effect or to explain 
the dependency of their parts. . . . His grammar is vicious . . • 



78 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

his syntax so bad as to darken liis meaning at times, and at 
other times to defeat it. 1848. De Quince y, XI., p. 62. 
Correctness in metrical composition, as I understand Pope to 
mean, implies obedieiice to the laws of imaginative thought; 
and therefore not only precision of poetical expression, but 
justice of poetical conception. Courthope, Lib. Movement, 
etc., p. 59. 
The virtue on which Pope prided himself was correctness ; and I 
have interpreted this to mean the quality which is gained by 
incessant labour guided by quick feeling, and always under the 
strict supervision of common sense. Stephen, Pope, p. 195. 
Morley's Eng. Men of Letters. 
English prose literature towards the end of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, in the hands of Dryden and Locke, was becoming, as that 
of Prance had become at an earlier date, a matter of design and 
skilled practice, highly conscious of itself as an art, and above 
all correct. 1886. Pater, Ap., p. 127- 
Setting up correctness, that humble merit of prose, as the central 
literary excellence, he (Dryden) is really a less correct writer 
than he may seem, still with an imperfect mastery of the rela- 
tive pronoun. 1888. Pater, Ap., p. 3. 
Corrective : Jeffrey. 
Corrupt (XIY.): Coleridge, Stephen, Eng. Thought in Eighteenth 

Century, II., p. 353. 
Costly (V.): Spenser's style ... is costly. None but the dainti- 
est and nicest phrases will serve him. Lowell, IY., p. 334. 
Courtly (V.) : Bolton to present. 

Ilaleigh ... is full of proper, clear, and courtly graces of speech. 
1610. Bolton, Hypercritica, p. 219. 
Covert (III.): Put. The English have no fancy, and are never 
surprised into a covert or witty word. Emerson, Rep. Men, 
p. 221. 
Crabbed (11.) : Dek. to present. Gosse, From Shak. etc., p. 118. 
Creative (XXIII.) : T. War. to present. 

Used chiefly in theory. It represents the result of 
the imaginative activities of the mind, which are brought 
into play in the production of literature. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 79 

Imagiuation has something in it like creation. Addisox, III., 

p. 429. 
Tor by invention, I believe, is nsuallv understood a creative fac- 
ulty. Fielding, T. Jones, II., p. 6. 
Genius . . . the power of acting creatively under lavrs of its ovtn 
origination. Coleridge, IV., p. 54. 
Creeping^(XVIII.) : Jeff., Hal, Jeffrey, II., p. 521. 
Crisp (XYIII.) : Terse and crisp versification. GossE, From Shak., 

etc., p. 212. 
CRITICAL (XX.) a : Hal, Saints. 

Used chiefly in theory : 

I. As an elaborative and refiective process. 

Fancy vras weakened by reflection and philosophy. . . . Judgment 
was advanced above imagination, and rules of criticism were 
established. T. Warton, H. E. P., p. 627. 

The critical faculty is lower than the inventive. M. Arnold, Cr. 
Es., 1st S., p. 3. 

II. As a penetrative and intuitive process. 

Poetry is at bottom a criticism of life. M. Aunold, Cr. Es., 2d S., 
p. 143. 

A delicate and tender justice in the criticism of human life. 
Pater, Ap., p. 105. 
Crooked (II.) : Ascham, Milton. 
Crude (V.): Rymer to present. 

Crude work of Shelley^s boyhood. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 217. 
Cumbrous (11.) : Cole to present. 

Cumbrous and clumsy. Wilson, YIIL, p. 86. 
Cunning (V.) b : Swin., Dow. 

Delicate cunning. Dowden, Shak., etc., p. 60. 
Curious (IX.) : Ascham to present. 

I. The odd and striking, viewed chiefly as a product. 

More curiously than cleanly. Puttenham, p. 28. 

More careful to speak curiously than truly. Sidney, p. 54. 



80 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

II. The desire for the strange and unusual, viewed 
chiefly as a mental process. 

When one's curiosity . . . overbalances the desire of beauty. 
Pater, Ap., p. 248. 

Not less interestmg than curious. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., 
p. 137. 
Currant (XVIII.) : Har., Put, Webbe. 

Currant and slipper upon the tongue. Puttenham, p. 24. 
Cut-and-thrust (XII.) : Wilson, YII, p. 404. 
Cyclopean (XL) : A Titanic or Cyclopean style. Swinburne, 

Mis, p. 98. 
Cynical (XIV.): Swinburne, Mis, p. 75. 

Dainty (XXII.) b : Whipple to present. Swinburne, Mis, p. 250. 
Daring (XII.) : Bryant to preseut. 

Their style becomes free and daring. Dowden, Shak., etc., p. 62. 
Dark (III.) : Aschara to present. 

The sense is hard and dark. Ascham, III., p. 269. 
Dazzling (V.) : Jeffrey, I., p. 413 ; Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 135. 
Debased (XIV.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 251. 
DECENT (IV.). 

Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
the term -'decent" indicated the absence in a compo- 
As moral and sition of startling incongruities, which gave 

artistic pro- 
priety, offence to what may be called the moral 

sense of order and symmetry in literature. "Decent" 
was a less technical term than '' decorum," and more 
inclusive in its meaning. The presence or absence of 
decency in a composition was determined by " some 
instinct or genius," or by the known truth or- fact, or 
by well-established literary principles and precepts de- 
rived from past usage. 

The Greeks call this good grace of everything in its kind to Trpenop, 
the Latins decorum ; we iu our vulgar call it by a scholastic 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 81 

term, decency, our own Saxon Englisli term is seemliness, that 
is to say, for his good shape and utter appearance well pleasing 
the eye, we call it also comeliness. 1585. Puttexha^, 
p. 268. 

Still methinks that in all decency the style ought to conform with 
the nature of the subject, otherwise if a writer will seem to ob- 
serve no decorum at all. Id., p. 163. 

Apt and decent framing of words. 1586. AVebbe, p. 38. 

Of the indecencies of an heroic poem, the most remarkable are 
those that show disproportion either between the persons and 
their actions, or between the manners of the poet and the poem. 
1650. HoBBEs, lY., p. 451. 

A poet ought always to have that instinct or some good genius 
ready to serve his hero upon occasion, to prevent these unpleas- 
ant shocking indecencies. Rymer, 1st Pt., p. 61. 

Sentiments which raise laughter can very seklom be admitted with 
any decency into an heroic poem, whose business is to excite 
passions of a much nobler nature. 1711. Addisox, 111., 
p. 188. 

It is for the most part in our skill in manners, and in the observ- 
ances of time and place, and of decency in general, which is 
. only to be learned in those schools to which Horace recom- 
mends us, that what is called taste, by way of distinction con- 
sists. 1756. Burke, L, p. 63. 

The following is indecently hyperbolical : — 
To see this fleet upon the ocean move. 
Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies, etc. 

1781. S. JoHxsox, Yll., p. 317. 

Occasionally tliroughoiit the whole history of the 
term, and especially during the present century, " de- 
cent" has indicated an absence of moral . 

As moral 

licentiousness in the literary representation. Propriety. 
Like the term " purity," it has been appropriated for 
the expression of the growing sense of morals in lit- 
erature. It has, however, been less in use than for- 
merly when given a more technical significance. 



82 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Indecency of wounding women (on the stage). 1670. Dhydex, 

IV., p. 230. 
Otway's "' Orphan'^ is the work of a man not attentive to decency, 

nor zealous for virtue ; but of one who conceived forcibly, and 

drew originally, by consulting nature in his own breast. 1781. 

S. JoHNSox, VIL, p. 176. 
Since the time of Addison . . . the open violation of decency has 

always been considered among us as the mark of a fool. Ma- 

CAULAY, III., p. 454. 

^ Decisive : Whip, to present. 
Declamation (XIX.) : J. War. to present. 

Highly figurative ; almost bombastic. A question- 
able and rare form of literary excellence. 

Declamation overlays and strangles poetry, and disfigures even 
satire. Landor, Y., p. 116. 

The change from jog-trot commonplace to almost inspired decla- 
mation. Saintsbtjry, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 214. 
Decorative (V.) : Sted., Swin. 

Decoration ... is attractive, but least artistic and least proper to 
poetry. Aristotle, Poetics, p. 25. 

In vrorks of the imagination ... the use of decorations may be 
varied a thousand vrays with equal propriety. S. Johnson, II., 
p. 115. 
DECORUM (lY.). 

The term " decorum," until within the early portion 
of the present century, indicated the action of a re- 
As moral fined and conservative moral sense within 

refinement in 

literature. the ethical circle of literary sympathy. 
Hence it referred primarily to the literary represen- 
tation of characters, of their moral deportment, and 
of the incidents related of them. Only very incident- 
ally did the term refer to the language of a literary 
work. In theory '' decorum" was sometimes said to 
be determined by an instinct or intuition of the mind; 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 83 

but in actual criticism it was at best an instinctive 
conformation to the well-established usages or con^N'en- 
tions of good society and of good literature. 

They use one order of speech fur all persons, a gross indecorum. 
15 7S. Wheatstoxe, I., p. 204:. 

Spenser's due observing of decorum everywhere, in personages, in 
season, in matter, in speech, and generally in aU seemly sim- 
plicity of handling his matter and fraroiiig his words. loSG. 
Webbe, p. 53. 

So to interrninc^le merrv iests in a serious matter is an indecorum. 
Gascoigxe, p. o'2. 

I will as near as I can set down which matters be high aud lofty, 
which be but mean, and which be low and base, to the intent 
the styles may be fashioned to the matters, and keep their de- 
corum and good proportion in every respect. 15 S5. Putten- 

HAiT, p. 162. 

This lovely conformity or proportion or convenience between the 
sense and the sensible hath nature herself first most carefully 
observed in all her own works, then also by kind graft it in the 
appetites of every creature working by intelHgence to covet and 
desire ; and in their actions to imitate and perform, and of man 
chiefly before any other creature as well in his speeches as in 
every other part of his beha\"ior. And this in generality and 
by a usual term is that which the Latins call decorum. Id., 
p^. 269. 

(Of a sister's voluntarily consenting to incest) nothing could be 
invented more opposite to all honesty, honotir, and decorum. 
Rtmeb, 1st Pt., pp. 69, 70. 

Decorum of the stage. 1670. Deydex, IY. 

The venustum, the honestum, the decorum of things will force its 
way. SHArTESBmT, I., p. lOS. 

There is an impropriety and indecorum in joining the name of the 
most profligate parasite with that of an apostle. 1756. J. 
Wabtox, II., p. 315. 

During; the present century, '^decorum'' has fallen 
so much out of favor that it is not even used as a 



84 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

retrospective term. It usually denotes a conformity 
As moral and ^^^ literature to conventions of all kinds, 
ventionaiism ^'^ utter lack of spontaneity and original en- 

in literature. . ... tj.ii 

ergy m a composition, it has been very 
little in use. 

The details are lost or shaped into flimsy and insipid decorum. 
1825. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 102. 
Defective (XXll.) a: Jef. to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 213. 
Definite (III.) : T. War. to present. 

Concrete and definite imagery ... of Blessed Damozel. Pater, 
Ap., pp. 215, 216. 
Delicacy (XXll.) b : Put. to present. 

Refined sensibility; an airy gracefulness, the result 
of fineness rather than strength of feeling. 

The meter of six syllables is very sweet and delicate. Putten- 

HAM, p. 84. 
Delicate, classical, and polished. Bryant, L, p. 53. 
The poetic faculty always lias for its basis a peculiar temperament, 
an extraordinary delicacy of organization, and susceptibility to 
impressions. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 107- 
Delicious (XXII.) b: Jef. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 3. 
Delightful (XXll.)d: Hazlitt to present. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, 

p. 315. 
Delusive (Vlll.) : J. Wilson, Yll., p. 314. 
Dense (XL) : Swin., Gosse. 

Juvenal's dense and full-bodied lines. Gosse, Life of Congreve, 
p. 28. 
Depth (XIIl.) b : Ascham to present. 

That whicli gives evidence of real and essential 
truth, of penetration and insight into the unifying 
principles of separate facts and details. 

Acuteness of remark or depth of reflection. Milton, 111., p. 498. 
More truth of character, more instinctive depth of sentiment. 
Hazlitt, Age of El., p. 9G. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 85 

Depth and clearness ; a clearness that shows depth. LA^'DOIl, 

II, p. 415. 
Goethe combines . . . French clearness with English depth. 

Carlyle, I, p. 55. 
Design (XXIIT.) : Dry. to present. 

A conscious plan or purpose, or elaborated method of 
composition. 

Design and artifice. Dryden, II., p. 2SS. 

There is no uniformity in the design of Spenser : he aims at the 
accomplishment of no one action. Id., XIII. ^ p. 17. 

Without design ; in which the essence of humor consists. Hurd, 
II., p. 38. 
Desultory (XVIII.): Jef. to present. 

Desultory and rambhng. Wilson, YI., p. 238. 
Detailed (VIII.): Jef. to present. 

Dramatic power of detail. Swinburxe, Es. & St., p. 74i. 
Detestable (XXII.) Z/: Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 85. 
Device (XXIII.) : Gas. to present. 

An invention ; a fancy ; an ingenious ornament. 

Beautify the same with brave devices. Webbe, p. 36. 
Whatever devise be of rare invention they term it fantastical. 

PUTTEXHAM, p. 34. 

Eumish your imagination with great store of images and suitable 
devices. Swiet, IX., p. 189. 
Dexterity (V.) b : Nash to present. 

Peele's . . . pregnant dexterity of wit and manifold dexterity of 
invention. 1589. Nash, in Lit. Centuria, II., p. 238. 
Dictatorial : Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 94. 
DIDACTIC rXXI.) : Jef. to present. 

Poetry written with the evident purpose of inculcat- 
ing some moral lesson. A retrospective term, referring- 
to the poetry of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

What is didactic poetry ? . . . The predicate destroys the subject. 
... No poetry can have the function of teaching . . . only as 



86 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

nature teaclies, as forests teach, ... viz. by deep impulse, bv 
liieroglypbic suggestion. De Quince y, XI., p. 88. 
The didactic ... is a lower kind of poetry. M. Arnold, Cr. 

Es., 2d S., p. 139. 
Classical, didactic, and anti-romantic. Gosse, From Shak., etc., 
p. 15. 
Difficult (III.) : Chan, to present. 

Difficult and abstract. M. Arnold, Cr. Es , 2d S., p. 281. 
Diffuse (XIX.) : Swift to present. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 204. 
DIGNITY (XI.). 

The word " dignity " represents great energy and 

strength of personal character, which is at the same 

As regulated time controlled and regulated by a firm self- 
metrical . . . 1 T . ,, 
movement. restraint. As a critical term, " dignity, 

previous to the present century, was thought to con- 
sist chiefly in the restraint and regulation of energy. 
Occasionally the term denoted a stately regularity of 
metrical movement. 

The shortness of verse and the quick returns of rhyme debase . . . 
the dignity of style. 1693. Dryden, XIII., p. 112. 

Often the word denoted a uniform seriousness of tone 
in a composition. This meaning, which occasionally 
As seriousness occurs throughout the whole history of the 
of thought, term, places it in alliance with the tragic, 
and in opposition to the comic. 

Dignity of tragedy . . . elegance of comedy. 163S. Milton, 

ill.', p. 498. 
Dignity and state of an lieroic poem. 1669. Dryden, IV., p. 22. 
Dignity of tragedy. 1711. Pope, VI., p. 128. 
Wit sliould be used with caution in works of dignity, as it is only 

at best an ornament. 1759. Goldsmith, II., p. 357- 
Dignity truly Pindarick. 1781. S. Johnson, VIII., p. 38. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 87 

During the present century, the term "dignity-' 

usually denotes a certain equipoise of thought and 

simplicity of statement which spring from a As regulated 
^ strengtli and 

consciousness of great power, and a regu- energy, 
lated and restrained use of that power. 

Moral digEitj. Laxb, Elia, p. 2S6. 

Dignity, — from finite standard of the Greeks (as against sublim- 
ity). COLEHIDGE, lY., p. 29. 
Dignity, — from sobriety and greatness of mind. Macaulay, I., 

p. 38. 
Severe dignity of style. Do., p. 26. 
Dignity, — from simplicity. Woedsworth, III., p. 245. 
Dignity of poise. Lowell, 0. E. D., p. 37- 
Digression (XIIL) : T. Wil. to present. 
Dilatation (XIX.) ^: Spenser's dilatation is not mere distension, 

Lowell, IV., p. 331. 
Dilation (XIX.) ^: Milton's power lay in dilation. Lowell, Prose, 

IV., p. 84. 
Dilletantesque (VII.) : Poe to present. 

Having a sporadic interest in many diverse things ; an 
extensive rather than an intensive method of apprecia- 
tion. Lack of earnestness and organic development. 

Two kinds of dilettanti . . . says Goethe ... lie who neglects 
the indispensable mechanical part, and thinks he has done 
enough if he shows spirituality and feeUng ; and he who seeks 
to arrive at poetry merely by mechanism, in which he can 
acquire an artizan's readiness, and is without soul and spirit. 
M. Arnold, Mixed Es., p. 503. 
Petrarch ... is a moral dilettante. Lowell, Prose, 11. , p. 253. 
Dilution (XIX.) : De Quincey to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., 

p. 251. 
Dim (III.) : Lamb, Swin. 

Your obscurity is not the dimness of positive darkness, but of 
distance. Lame, Letters, IL, p. 80. 
DIRECT (XA^IIL). 



88 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The use of the term "direct" is confined ahnost 
exclusively to the present century, and during the last 
As inteUectuai few decades it has come to be of consider- 

unsuperf lu- . . • , . . t^ . , , 

ousness. able prominence ni criticism. "JJirectness 

represents both a method of thinking and a form of 
feeling. These are both present in every use of the 
term, but now one preponderates and now another. 
Often ''directness" denotes for the most part mere 
logical closeness and severity of thought ; an intellec- 
tual simplicity and unsuperfluousness of style. 

Direct and explicit. Gray, L, p. i03. 

SimpKcity and directness. 1816. Jeffkey, II., p. 44S. 

Directness and clearness of speecli. M. Arnold, Mixed Es., 

p. 211. 
The tlionglit deep, lucid, direct. 1867. Swinburne, Es. & St., 

p. 126. 
The direct intelligence of simple reason. 1872. Id., p. 28. 

Often the term signifies for the most part a sincere 
As emotional openness of emotional expression, — a sin- 

unsuperflu- ^ . . ,. -, . , 

ousness. cerity SO immediate and energetic that at 

times it becomes blunt and unrefined. 

Keen sincerity and direct force. 1870. Swinburne, Es. & St., 

p. 89. 
There is a seeming artlessness in Lodge's sonnets, a vrinsome 

directness. 1874. ^Iinto, Char, of Eng. Poets, p. 198. 
It was thought that the old direct manner of speaking was crude 

and futile. 1885. Gosse, Erom Sliak. to Pope, p. 10. 
A direct statement through its truth, often has exceeding beauty, 

— the beauty, pathetic or otherwise, of perfect naturalness. 

1892. Stedman, Nat. of Poetry, p. 193. 
Discord (X.) : Saints. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 141. 
Discriminative (XX.)/y: Jef. to present. Dowden St. in Lit., 

p. 20b. 



A HISTORY^ OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 89 

Discursive (XIII.) : Jef. to present. 

The discursive and decorative stvle of Speuser. Swinburxe, 
Mis., p. 10. 
Discutable (VIII.) : H. James, p. 376. 
Disjointed (XIII.) : Haz., Saints. 

Lumbering and disjointed. Saixtsbury, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 214. 
Dislocated : Gosse, From Sliak., etc., p. 101. 
Dissonance (X.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 111. 
Distinct (III.) : Mil. to present. 

The term refers primarily to mental imagery. It 

denotes definiteness in the different images, — a defi- 

niteness, however, which is not abstracted and isolated 

enough to be inconsistent with an intense unifying 

emotion or feeling in the literary production. 

In Ossian ... I knew that the imagery was spurious. In nature 
everything is distinct, yet nothing defined into absolute inde- 
pendent singleness. AYoedswoeth, IL, p. 122. 
. In Scott . . . the intensity of the feeling is not equal to tlie dis- 
tinctness of the imagery. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 174?. 
Distinction (IX.) : Swin., Gosse. 

Originality or distinction. Swinburne, Mis., p. 92. 
Distinguished (XXIL), cl (XIX.): Cole, Gosse. Coleridge, III., 

p. 462. 
Distorted (11.) : Distorted and exaggerated picture. Jeffrey, III., 

p. 100. 
Diverse (XIII.): Collier to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 111. 
Diverting (XYII.) : Hal., Mor., Gosse. Hallam, III., p. 328. 
Divine (XXII.) ^: Add. to present. Addison, III., p. 1S8. 
Doggerel (XXIL)'^: Put. to present. 

Dissonant doggerel. Swixburne, Mis., p. 111. 
DRAMATIC (XXL). 

The term "dramatic" represents in a composition 
that which is fit to be acted ; in the author, the power 
of losing his personality in a full realization of the 
motives and actions of others ; but the unifying con- 



90 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

ception of the term comes from the effect which the 
drama produces upon the reader or hearer. The term 
usually charactizes those forms of literature other than 
the drama which produce an effect upon the mind of 
the reader similar to that of the drama itself. It rep- 
resents character portrayal, in which the incidents are 
intensified, animated, vivid, and striking. Occasion- 
ally the term is employed to distinguish between those 
parts of dramatic composition which conform to these 
essential requirements, and those parts which do not. 

Dramatic poetry . . . iiistory made visible. Bacon, IV,, p. 315. 
As the Iliad was written while his spirit was ia its greatest vigour, 
the whole structure of that work is dramatic and full of action. 
Pope, etc. 

Shut, shut the door, good John (fatigued I said). 
Tie up the knocker ; say I 'm sick, I 'm dead. (Pope.) 
This abrupt exordium is animated and dramatic. J. Wauton, 

IP, p. 208. 
Bold, dramatic transitions of Shakespeare's blank verse. Hazlitt, 

Eng. Poets, pp. 56, 57- 
The dramatist must . . . keep himself out of sight and let nothing 

appear but his characters. Macaulay, L, p. 24. 
In the abstract, dramatic is thought or emotion in action, or on its 
way to become action. In the concrete, it is that which is more 
vivid if represented than described, and Avhich would lose if 
merely narrated. Lowell, 0. E. D., p. 25. 
Drawling: Wilson, IP, p. 85. 

Dreamy: Jef., Mor. Dreamy and abstracted. Jeffrey, IP, p. 376. 
Dreary (XXIP) d: Swin. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 133. 
Drivening (XP): Jef. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 82. 
Dron(XVIP): Pymer to present. 

Drollery arises where the laughable is its own end, — neither infer- 
ence or moral being intended. Coleridge, IV., p. 275. 
Dry (XV.), cf. (XVP and XVH.): Ascham to present. 

An apparent want of spirit, feeling, and penetration. 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TEEMS. 91 

Dry, hard, aud barren of etfect. Hazliit, Age of El., p. 207. 

Thoreau's dry humor. Buekoughs, Birds and Poets, p. 61. 

A certain coldness or dryness in the tone. T. Aexold. Hiit. 
etc., p. 604. 
Dry-stick (XVII.) : Himr. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Eir., p. 257. 
Ductile (XVIII. ) : Jet., TThip. Jeffrey, 11., p. 194. 
Dull (XX.) 5 : Alil. to present. 

Locke's style ... is bald, duli, plebeian. SAiyisErEY. En^:. Pr. 

St., p. XXLT. 

Earnest (XIV.) : Lamb to present. 

In considerable use : usually opposed to formal re- 
finement and polish. 

The primary virtues of sincerity, earnestness, and a moral interest 
in the main object. TToeds^oeth. IE, p. 51. 

Deconim gives place to earnestness. T. Ae:s"old, Man., etc., 
p. IIS. 
EASY (XVIIL). 

Previous to the present century, there were two more 
or less distinct uses of the term ••easv." . 

As perspi- 

Often it was very nearly if not quite iden- ^^^^* 
tical in meaning with clearness and perspicuity. 

Easy and plain conjp:?:^ ::'::. Th. TTilsox, Ehet., p. 17 S. 
History . . . aims :.: : -^iiers and perspicuity. 1699. BzyiLEY, 

L, p. 360. 
Perspicuous and easy. 177 S. T. TV.veiox, His:. E. P., p. 965. 

More often "easy" denoted a general facility in com- 
position, the result of extensive training and 

^ _ " As facility. 

practice: if applied to versification it might 
result from the form of verse chosen. 

Ehyme. — that vulgar aud easy kind of poetry. Campion, p. 2o2. 

The great easiness of blank verse renders the poet too luxuriant ; 
he is tempted to say many tilings which might better be omit- 
ted, or at least shut up in fewer words. 1661. Dryden, IE, 
p. 13S. 



92 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

When they had so pohshed their piece, and rendered it . . . natu- 
ral and easy. Shaftesbury, I., p. 183. 

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance. 1711. Pope, 
II., p. 56. 

Whatever is done skilfully appears to be done with ease. 1751. 
S. Johnso:n^, III., p. 80. 

During the present century "ease" has represented 

a certain general efficacy of statement rather than 

mere fluency or clearnegs. The author must 

As efficiency. 

be master of the thought that he wishes to 
express ; he must use words and methods of expres- 
sion as familiar as is consistent with an adequate rep- 
resentation of the subject ; and to do this there is 
required both acquired skill and native power and 
ability. When applied to the versification, ''ease" 
denotes smoothness and efficiency, the result of prac- 
tice and of the native sense of rhythm and harmony. 

Ease and simplicity are two expressions often confounded and 
misapplied. We usually find ease arising from long practice, 
and sometimes from a delicate ear without it; but simplicity 
may be rustic and awkward, of which there are innumerable 
examples in Wordsworth's volumes. 1826. Landou, IV., 
p. 61. 

If by classical is meant ease, precision, and unsuperfluousness of 
style. 1818. Hunt, A Jar of Honey, p. 158. 

A Prench lightness and ease of expression. 1843. Whipple, Es. 
& Rev., p. 16. 

Too much consideration is unfavorable to the ease of letter- writing, 
and perhaps of all writing. 1855. Bagehot, I., p. 253. 

A feminine ease and grace. M. Aunold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 131. 

Eamiliar words make a style frank and easy. Id., p. 283. 

The seventeenth century critics . . . associated and confounded 
ease of composition with shallowness of endowment, and a 
stock of classical phraseology with creative power. 1884. T. 
Arnold, Man. of Eng. Lit., p. 280. 



d 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 93 

Ebullient (XII.) : Effusive and ebulKeut. Swinburne, Es. & St., 
p. 271. 

Eccentric (11.) : Saintsburj, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 278. 

Eclectic (XIII.) : Gosse, Pater. 

Of eclecticism, we liave a justifying example in one of the first poets 
of our time, — Tennyson. Pater, Ap., p. 13. 

Ecstasy (XY.) : Hos., Gosse. Hossetti, Lives of Eamous Poets, p. 60. 

Edge (XX.) b: SAvinburne, Mis., p. 303. 

Effeminate (XII.) : Gosson to present. S. Jolmson, V., p. 133. 

Effete (lY.) : Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, Mis., p. 86. 

Efficacy (XXII.) : Camden to present. 

SkiU, variety, efficacy, and sweetness, the four material points re- 
quired in a poet. Camden, p. 337. 

Effortless (YII.) : Wilson, X., p. ISO. 

Effusive (XIX.) 6 : Dow. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 69. 

Egotism (XIY.) : Jef. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 110. 

Elaborate (Y.) : Heywood to present. 

Not spontaneous; that which is consciously designed 
and attained. 

Cultivate simplicity, banish elaborateness. Lamb, Letters, I., 

p. 46. 
Goldsmith wrote with elaborate simphcity. Jeffeey, I. p. 166. 
The delicate touch of the true humorist ... is alien to De 
Quincey's more elaborate style. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., 
I., p. 376. 
Elastic (XYIII.) : Jef. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 250. 
Elegiac (XXI.) : Low. to present. 

Dante's " Inferno '^ . . . not subhme enough to be tragic, and not 
pathetic enough to be elegiac. T. Arn'old, Hist, of Eng. Lit., 
p. 198.' 
ELEGANCE (Y.). 

''Elegance" in rhetorical theory is considered as one 
of the three or four essentials of style. In actual criti- 
cism its history may be divided into two ^^ ^^^^.^ 
periods. Until near the beginning of the rlflnemSir'^ 
present century, "elegance" indicated a gen- °^^^^^^' 



94 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

eral exaltation of style out of the vulgar and common- 
place, by means of refined diction, poetical figures of 
speech, and scholarly allusion. The term is found 
placed in antithesis to '^dignity," to the "strong and 
solemn," to the ''sublime," and to the ''beautiful." 
"Elegance" thus represented the lighter graces of 
speech, which are the result of fanciful ingenuity, 
rather than the more essential qualities of style, which 
rest primarily upon the thought and the artistic con- 
ception of the literary work. 

Elegancies result from metaphor constructed on similar ratios, pro- 
portion, and from personification. Aristotle, Rhet'., p. 239. 
A fiction of one of the later poets is not inelegant : He feigns that 
at the end of the thread or web of every man's life, there hangs 
a little medal or collar, on which his name is stamped. Bacon, 
lY., p. 307. 
Propriety must first be stated, ere any measures of elegance can be 

taken. 1679. Dryden, YI., p. 251. 
Elegance and grace. 1756. J. Waeton, L, p. 334. 
The nameless and inexplicable elegancies, which appeal wholly to 
the fancy, from which we feel delight but know not how they 
produce it. 1751. S. Johnson, II., p. 432. 
Though the following lines of Donne . . . have something in them 
scholastic, they are not inelegant : 

This twilight of two years, not past nor next, 
Some emblem is of me or I of this. 
Who meteor-like of stufp and form perplexed. 
Whose what and where in disputation is. 

1781. Id., YIL, p. 19. 
Those happy combinations of words which distinguish poetry from 
prose had been rarely attempted. We had few elegancies or 
flowers of speech. 1781. Id., Yll., p. 308. 

During the present century '' elegance" has been 
employed to a certain extent as a retrospective term, 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 95 

and has not been held in very high favor. It is sup- 
posed to result from an elaborate use of the fancv. 
use so elaborate as to negate the hiuiier pos- , , ^ 

>- -^ As_ elaborate 

sibilities of poetry. ••Elegance'" thus sioiii- ^^^^^^^^^y- 
fies a certain studied brilliancy, primarily of the lan- 
guage, secondarily of the thought, the evident result 
of lightness of fancy rather than depth of thought or 
feeling. 

An inelegant cluster of ''Tvitlionts." ISIO. Coiertdge, IV., 
p. 3S6. 

Eomanhc grace and classic elegance. IS 20. Hazliit, Age of 
Eiiz., p. 116. 

(Of Voltaire) That the deeper portion of oiu' soul sits silent nn- 
moved under all this ; recognizing no universal beanty, but only 
a modish elegance, less the work of a poetical creation than a 
process of the toilette, need occasion no surprise. 1S29. Car- 

LYLE, II., p. 167. 

(Of Captain Hall) There is such a pleasure in listening to his ele- 
gant nothings. PoE, L, p. 355. 

Elegant ... is not in the nomenclature of the Lake SchooL Since 
dealing . . . vith the essential principles of human nature, that 
school had no room . . . for those minor contrivauces of thought 
and language, which are necessary to express the complex accu- 
mnlation of httle feelings, the secondary growth of human emo- 
tion. 1S57- BvGEHOT, II., p. 272. 

Wit, ingenuity, and learning in verse, even elegancy itself, though 
that comes nearest, are one thing : true native poetry is another. 
1871. (Quoted from Philipps.) Lowell, IV., p. 2. 
Elevation (XL) : Dry. to present. 

Much in use. A sublimation oi^ heightening of ordi- 
nary language. 

I. Previous to the present century, by means of 

metrical and rhetorical expedients. 

Expedients for elevation of style, — 1. Drtinition instead of single 
name, etc. AiasTOTLE, Khet., ])p. :22:2. '2:23. 



96 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Poetry ... an elevation of natural dialogue. Goldsmith, I., 

p. 339. 
Cowley considered the verse of tvrelve syllables as elevated and 

majestic. S. Johnsox, YII., p. 55. 

II. During the present century, '^elevation" has 
usually been supposed to spring from the passion, feel- 
ing, or thought expressed. 

The elevation of tone arises from the strong mood of passion 

rather than from poetical fancy. Scott, Life of Swift, p. 453. 
Milton's elevation clearly comes in the main from a moral quality 
in him, — his pureness. M. Aunold, Mixed Es., etc., p. 202. 
Eniptical (XIX.) d: Hal. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 206. 
Elocution (VI.) : Webbe to Dryden. 

Used chiefly in theory. It was a technical expres- 
sion, denoting the choice of words, the selection of 
language for a thought already apprehended and ar- 
ranged. Occasionally the term represented merely the 
rhetorical enhancement of the thought. 

Elocution, or the art of clothing and adorning thought, already 
found and varied, in apt, significant, and sounding words. 
Dryden, IX., p. 96. 
Elocution and artifices. Id., XV., pp. 30^, 305. 
Lively images and elocution. Id., V., p. 120. 
ELOQUENCE (VI.). 

The term ''eloquence" has usually been closely sy- 
nonymous with the term ''poetical." Like the "poeti- 
As strong cal," "eloquence" in early criticism tended 

poetical 1.1 • ^ 

feeling. to represent a heightening, and hence a fal- 

sification of the truth; later, an "imitation of nature;" 
and in tlie present century, impassioned imagination. 
But these different uses and changes of meaning in 
the term "eloquence" were not as marked as in the 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 97 

term " poetical," and may be classed together as repre= 
senting an impassioned and elevated method of expres- 
sion, as strength rather than delicacy of poetic feeling. 

I hold eloquence venerable and even sacred in all its departments; 

in solemn tragedy . . . m the majesty of the epic, the gayety of 

the lyric muse, the vranton elegy, the keen iambic, and the 

pointed epigram. Tacitus, II., p. 401. 
Cato . . . had more truth for the matter than eloquence for the 

style. As CHAM, p. 156. 
Doubtless that indeed according to art is most eloquent vrhicli 

turns and approaches nearest to nature. Miltox, III., p. 100. 
Plato is most celebrated for imagination, and for an eloquence 

higlily poetical. Laxdor, III., p. lJi9. 
Eloquence of impassioned tliought finding vent in vivid imagery. 

Lowell, Lat. Lit. Es., p. 121. 

In theory at least, however, the " poetical " and the 
''elociuent" have occasionally been distinguished from 
each other. Modern eloquence is not natu- . ^^^ ^^_ 
rally so poetical as was ancient eloc|uence. of^^eS°^ 
When it becomes elevated^ it usually gives 
the effect of rhetorical heio'htening; rather than of sin- 
cere and native feeling. 

Ancient eloquence was subhme, passionate; modem eloquence is 

argumentative, rational. Hume, I., p. 172. 
Poetry sprang from ease, and was consecrated to pleasure, whereas 
eloquence arose from necessity, and aims at conviction. Gold- 
smith, L, p. 31:1. 
It is the fault of the day to mistake mere eloquence for poetry ; 
whereas in direct opposition to the conciseness and simplicity of 
the poet, the talent of the orator consists in making much of a 
simple idea. Newman, Es. on Aristotle, p. IS. 
Emasculate (XII.) : Smooth, emasculated lyrics. Gosse, Seven- 
teenth Cent. St., p. 201. 
Embellished (V.) : Dry. to present. 

7 



98 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Embroidered (V.) : Jeffrey, I., p. 412. 
Emotion (XY.) : Jef. to present. 

Recently in considerable use. The term usually 
represents a mental excitation, which is less intense 
and active than passion, and more so than feeling. 

True emotion is emotion ripened by a slow ferment of the mind 
and qualified to an agreeable temperance by that taste which is 
the conscience of polite society. Lowell, II., p. 252. 

His idealism does not consist in conferring grandeur upon vulgar 
objects by tinging them with the reflection of deep emotion. 
Stephen, Hrs in a Lib., I., p. 280. 

Poetic passion is intensity of emotion. Stedman, Nat. of Poetry, 
p. 261. 
Emphatic (XIL). 

That which by any means has been made more strik- 
ing than ordinary composition. This result is usually 
brought about by figurative language; and the '' em- 
phatic" and the '^poetical" are occasionally found 
associated with each other. 

Emphasis, or what in an artist's sense gives relief to a passage, 

causing it to stand forward and in advance of what surrounds 

it, — that is the predominating idea in the ''sublime" of Lon- 

ginus. De Quincey, X., p. 301. 
Poetical . . . that is figurative and emphatic. Hallam, II., 

p. 207. 
Poetry should be memorable and emphatic, intense and soon over. 

Bageiiot, Lit. St., II., p. 352. 
Style . . . consists mainly in the absence of undue emphasis and 

exaggeration. Lowell, III., p. 353. 
Enchanting (XXII.) <^: Jef. to present. Jefi'rey, II., p. 56. 
Energia (XII.) : Sid. to present. 

Energia of poets lies in high and hearty invention. (Quoted from 

Chapman) Stedman, Nat. of Poetry, p. 18. 
ENERGY (XII). 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 99 

Previous to the present century, the term "energy," 
much like the Greek ivepyeta^ signified a general vivid- 
ness in composition, which manifested itself As vividness 

and effective- 
in both the thought and the language. As ness. 

applying to the language of a composition, •' energy " 
was manifested in the sound, in the meter, in rhyme, 
in the general diction and choice of words, and in 
smoothness and ease of comprehension. When the 
term apparently refers wholly to the language, it per- 
haps often applies by figure of speech to the thought 
also. As applying to the thought of a composition, 
"energy" was said to spring from concreteness, from 
distinctness, from dramatic power, and from brevity. 

If indeed tliey feel those passions, it may easily be betrayed by 
that same forcibleness or energeia (as the Greeks call it) of the 
writer. 1583. Sidney, p. 52. 

Erom burning suns when livid deaths descend. 
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep 
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep. (Pope.) 
I quote these lines as an example of energy of style. 1756. J. 

Wartoi^, II., p. 65. 
The foundations for a nervous or a weak style are laid in an author's 
manner of thinking. If he conceives an object strongly he will 
express it with energy. Blaie, Rhet., p. 199. 

During the present century, the term "energy" has 
ahnost uniformly referred to the active creative process 
in the mind of the poet. It denotes delicacv As strength 

. . T (, . T " of artistic 

as well as vividness oi conception and ex- impulse, 
pression ; it represents the most primal and funda- 
mental activity of the artistic impulses and instincts. 

Motives are symptoms of weakness and supplements for the defi- 
cient energy of the living principle, the law within us. 1825. 
Coleridge, I., p. 166. 



100 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Byron possessed the soul of poetry which is energy. 1826. La:n"- 

DOR, IV., p. 43. 
For one effect of knowledge is to deaden the force of the imagina- 
tion and the original energy of the whole man. 1846. Huskin, 
St. of Yen., II., p. 56. 
Genius is mainly an affair of energy, and poetry is mainly an affair 

of genius. 1865. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 50. 
No poet, perhaps, is so evidently filled with a new and sacred en- 
ergy when the inspiration is upon him (as Wordsworth). M. 
Arnold, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 155. 
Chaucer's descriptive style is remarkable for its lowness of tone, 
— for that combination of energy with simplicity which is among 
the rarest gifts in literature. 1870. Lowell, III., p. 353. 
Engaging (XXII.) b : Jeffrey, II., p. 326. 
English (I.): Keats' "Ode to Nightingale" . . . fresh, genuine, 

and English. Jeffrey, II., p. 386. 
Entertaining (XXII.) <^: Haz., Gosse. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 315. 
ENTHUSIASM. 

The term ''enthusiasm" has varied more as to the 
favor with which it has been received than as to the 
As the pas- meaning which has been given to it. It has 
fanciful. always represented an excited state of the 
feelings, a passionate devotion to a purpose or ideal. 
But until the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
this passion or feeling was thought to be inconsistent 
with the calm apprehension and presentation of truth. 
"Enthusiasm" represented a moral quality, having some 
justification for its existence, which, liowever, in liter- 
ature produced nothing but wild and incoherent fancies. 

Poetry is the language of enthusiasm . . . guard against what 
savours of poetry. Aristotle, Ehet., pp. 222, 22G. 

Good humour is not only the best security against enthusiasm, but 
the best foundation of piety and true rehgion. Shaftesbury, 
I, pp. 16, 17. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 101 

Inspiration is a real feeling of tlie divine presence, and entliusiasm 

a false one. Id., p. 10. 
True poetry . . . cannot Tvell subsist . . . without a tincture of 

enthusiasm. 1756. J. Waktox, I., p. 317. 

Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
the enthusiastic has been closely synonymous with the 
impassioned. It represents moral sincerity as the sym- 

pathetic and 

and intense energy combined, to a certain impassioned, 
extent at least, with poetical passion and feeling. 

Enthusiastic and meditative imagination, poetical as contradistin- 
guished from human and dramatic imagination. Wordswoeth, 
IL, p. 139. 
There is no enthusiasm, no energy, no condensation, nothing "which 
springs from strong feeling, nothing which tends to excite it. 
Macaulay, IY., p. 391. 
Enthusiasm snblimates the understanding into imagination. Low- 
ell, Lit. Es.j I., p. 196. 
Enthusiastic (XY.) : Shaftes. to present. 
Ephemeral (XL) : Poe. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 43. 
Epical (XXL): Lowell. 

Used little in theory, and perhaps not at all as an 
active critical term. 

The Spanish tragedy inclines more towards the lyrical, the Erench 
toward the epical. Lowell, Prose, II., p.- L28. 
Epigrammatic : Camden to present. 

Usually regarded as a low form of literary composition. 

Little fanciful authors and writers of epigram. Addisox, II., 
p. 371. 

Alexander's Eeast concludes with an epigram of four Hues ; a spe- 
cies of wit as flagrantly unsuitable to the dignity, and as foreign 
to the nature, of the lyric, as it is of the epic muse. J. TTarton, 
L, p. 60. 



102 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Equable (XIX.) : Haz. to present. 

Equable flow of the sentiments. Hazlitt, Age of EL, p. 56. 
That monotonous equability, that often wearies us in more pol- 
ished poetry. Hallam, II., p. 232. 
Equality (II.): Dry. to present. 

I have not everywhere observed the equality of numbers in my 
verse . . . because I would not have my sense a slave to sylla- 
bles. Deyden, III., p. 379. 
Hazlitt is one of the most absolutely unequal writers in English ; 
with him the inequality is pervading, and shows itself in his 
finest passages. Saintsbury, Eng. Lit., etc., p. 137. 
Equanimity (XIX.) : Equanimity of conscious and constantly in- 
dwelling power . . . Wordsworth had not. Lowell, Prose, YL, 
p. 109. 
Erotic (XY.) : Shel. to present. 

Erotic delicacy in poetry . . . correlate with softness in statuary. 
Shelley, YIL, pp. 118, 119. 
Erratic (II.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 284. 
Erudite (XX.) : Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 182. 
Ethereal (XXII.) d: Whip, to present. 

There is something a little too ethereal in all this. M. Arnold, 
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 285. 
Ethos (YL) : Dry. to present. (See " Characters " and " Manners."') 
Euphuism: Whip, to present. 

Has not been applied to literature enough to be given 
a definite meaning. The affectation of ardent and 
useless feelings. Chiefly a retrospective term, refer- 
ring to certain foreign imitations in the time of Queen 
Elizabeth. 

In the romances of Greene and Lodge we have Euphuism as an 
affectation of an affectation. Whipple, Lit. of Age of Eh, 
p, 253. 

Belated euphuism. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 39. 
Evanescent (XI.) : Ros., Gosse. 

Spontaneous and evanescent beauties . , . of the best romantic 
poetry. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 24. 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 103 

Even (II.) : Put. to preseat. 

Even and liarmouious excellence. S\tixbur^'e, Mis., p. 136. 
Everydayness : Lowell, Prose, III., p. 111. 
EXACT (YIII.). 

Usually tlie term "exact" has indicated a careful 
and studied method of expression, the chief emphasis 
being placed upon the use of language and ^g accuracy 
the mechanical construction of the compo- ^ anguage. 
sition. This use of the term was especially marked 
previous to the present century. 

Little exactnesses in translating. Pope, Till., p. 107- 
To make our poetry exact there ought to be some stated mode of 
admitting triplets and alexandrines. S. Johnsox, TIL, }). 317. 
Where there is laxitv, there is inexactness. Laxdor, T., p. 109. 

Occasionally the term denotes definiteness in the 
use of imagery, and accuracy in the se- ^ logical 
quence of thought in a composition, accuracy. 

An attempt to unite order and exactness of imagery with a subject 
formed on principles so professedly romantic and anomalous is 
Kke giving Corinthian piQars to a Gothic palace. T. Waktoj^', 
Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 261. 

Intellectual exactness of statement. Lowell, IT., p. 20. 

Occasionally, also, exactness indicates a , 

" ' ' As accuracy 

scrupulous accuracy to the details of the ^° ^^^^* 

facts represented. 

This exactness of detail . . . gives an appearance of truth. Haz- 
LiTT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 159. 
Exaggerated (Till.) : Bacon to present. 

Much in use. An overstatement of the facts, which, 
however, in a mild form, as poetical emphasis, has usu- 
ally been regarded, in theory at least, as possessing 
positive literary merit. 



104 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

The chief power of an orator lies in exaggeration and extenuation. 

QUINTILIAN, II., p. 108. 
Characters in poetry may be a Kttle overcharged or exaggerated 

without offering violence to nature. Goldsmith, I., p. 339. 
Exaggeration and as a result coldness of sentiment. Macaulay, 

IV., p. 3S0. 
The imagination is an exaggerating and exclusive faculty. Haz- 

LITT, III., p. 50. 

Exalted (XI.) : J. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 12. 
Excellent (XXI.) : Jef. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 165. 
Excessive (YIII.) : Hume to present. Rossetti, Lives, etc., p. 106. 
Excitement: Intensity and excitement in expression. GossE, Hist. 

Eng. Lit., III., p. 57. 
Excrementitious (YIL) : Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 287- 
Excursive (XIII.) : Jef., Saints. Jeffrey, I., p. 391. 
Exhaustive (XXII.) : Swin., Saints. Swinburne, Mis., p. 57. 
Exotic (YII.) : Gib., Jef., Saints. 
Expansive (XIII.) b : Haz. to present. 

Meditative expansiveness ... of Bacon. Whipple, Lit. of Age 
of El., p. 337. 
Explicit (III.) : Gray. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 26. 
Expressive : J. War. to present. 

Burns' letters . . . simple, vigorous, expressive. Carlyle, IL, 
p. 12. 
Exquisite (XXII.) b : Hymer to present. 

In this fable . . . there is hardly anything more exquisite and 
more perfect than history. Rymee, 1st Pt., pp. 57, 58. 
Extraordinary (IX.) : Jef. to present. 
Extravagant (XIX.) b : Dry. to present. 

Much in use. An overstrained use of figurative 
language, or an extremely exaggerated method of pre- 
senting facts. 

Which the glad saint shakes off at his command. 
As once the viper from his sacred hand. (Waller.) 

This is extravagant. S. Johnson, YII., p. 211. 

This extravagant and absurd diction. Wordstvorth, II., p. 103. 

A delicate sense of humor . . . the best preservative against all 
extravagance. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 295. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 105 

Exuberance (XI.) b : Mil. to present. 

The remedy for exuberance is easy ; barrenness is incurable by any 

labor. QuiNTiLiAX, II., p. 106. 
Chasten the exuberance of conceit and fancy. Shaftesbuet, T., 
p. 131. 
Exultation; Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 164. 
FABLE (VI.) : Put. to beginning of nineteenth century. 

Used in theory as a correlate expression to charac- 
ters, manners, sentiment, and style. Mechanically con- 
sidered, it represented the plot construction, more 
essentially the story or fiction embodied in a literary 
production. The fable was usually regarded as in 
itself poetical. This was the epic conception of poetry. 
The schematizing influence of the term, or at least of 
the idea which it represents, is found throughout dra- 
matic criticism, and to a certain extent in the criticism 
of the novel also. 

The fable and fiction is, as it were, the form and soul of any poet- 
ical work or poem. B. Joxsox, Timber, p. 73. 
Eable though the foundation ... is not the chief thing, since 
pity and terror will operate nothing on our affections except the 
characters, manners, thoughts, and words are suitable. Dry- 
den, XY., pp. 381, 3S2. 
The fable is properly the poet's part, since characters are taken 

from moral philosophy, etc. Rymer, 2d Pt., pp. 86, 87. 
In poetry, which is all fable, truth still is the perfection. 
Shaftesbuey, I., pp. 110, 111. 
Facetious (XXII.) b\ Wakefield to present. 

Eacetious stories. Wakeeield, in Lit. Cen., I., p. 20. 
Facmty (XYIIL), cf. (V.) b : Put. to present. 

The uncommon union of so much facility and force. J. Warton, 
II., p. 267. 
Factitious (YII.) : Jeffrey, I., p. 393. 

Fade (Fr.) : Insipid; dull. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 350. 
Fair : Jef. Saintsbury, Hist. Er. Lit., p. 289. 



106 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Faithful (YIII.) : T. War. to present. 

Justness and faithfulness of the representation. T. Waeton, 
Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 34. 
False (YIII.) : Jef. to present. 

False and hollow. Wilson, YII., p. 297- 
Falsetto (Yll.) : Jef. to present. Coleridge, Yl., p. 417. 
Familiar : Dry. to present. 

At once romantic and familiar. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 
174. 
FANCY (XXIII.). 

Until the present century, " fancy " and " imagina- 
tion," in actual criticism, were almost synonymous 
As lightness expressions. " Imagination," however, was 
of conceit. often ill a vague manner the more inchisive 
term. "Fancy," when it was not exactly synonymous 
with " imagination," may be said to have varied from 
it in three ways : it denoted the more wild and vagrant 
flights of the imagination ; or those lighter forms of 
the imagination which perhaps aid in the process of 
composition ; or those far-fetched combinations of ideas 
or images which produce the feeling of the ludicrous, 
or what was sometimes called " comical wit." 

Poetical fancies and furies. 1641. B. Jonson, L, p. 201. 

His sharp wit and higli fancy. 1640. Walton, Lives, p. 53. 

Eancy . . . consisteth not so much in motion as in copious im- 
agery discreetly ordered and perfectly registered in the mem- 
ory. 1650. HoBBEs, lY., p. 449. 

When fancy was yet in its first work, moving the sleeping images 
of things towards the light, there to be distinguished, and then 
either chosen or rejected by the judgment. 1664. Duyden, 
IL, p. 130. 

In plotting and writing, the fancy, memory, and judgment are 
then extended, like so many limbs, upon the rack. 1664. Id., 
p. 132. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CPdTICAL TERMS. 107 

So, then, the first happiness of the poet's imaguiation is properly / 
invention, or findiug of the thought ; the second is fancy, or the 
variation deriving or moulding of that thought, as the judgment 
represents it proper to the subject. 1666. Dkydex, IX., 
p. 96. 

But how it happens that an impossible adventurer should cause 
our mirth, I cannot so easily imagine ... its oddness ... to 
be ascribed to the strange appetite of the fancy. 1671. Id.,.^ 
Ill, p. 241. 

Eancy gives the life touches and secret graces to a poem. 1671. 
Id., p. 252. 

Eancy, I think, in j^oetrv is like faith in religion; it makes far 
discoveries, and soars above reason, but never clashes or runs 
against it. Hymeu, 1st Pt., p. 8. 

Correct the redundancy of humours, and chasten the exuberance 
of conceit and fancy. Shaftesbury, I., p. 131. 

The imagination or fancy, which 1 shall use promiscuously. 1712. 
Addison, III., p. 391. 

In allegory there are always two passions opposing each other ; a 
love of reality, which represses the flights of fancy, and a pas- 
sion for the marvellous, which would leave reflection behind 
1759. Goldsmith, IY., pp. 334, 335. 

When the reader's fancy is once on the w4ng, let it not stoop at 
correction and explanation. 1765. S. Johnson, Y., p. 152. 

During the present century, " fancy " and '' imagina- 
tion" have been sharply distinguished from each other, 
''fancy" denoting that method of combining As Ughtness 
ideas or images which is intermediate be- tive activity, 
tween the method of imagination on the one hand and 
of conceit on the other. " Fancy," considered as a 
mental process, represents the rapid play of the mind 
in search of unwonted combinations, which, often by 
revealing essential likenesses in ideas or images that 
were thought to be unrelated to one another, impercep- 
tibly shades into the imagination. Considered as a 



108 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

completed product, " fancy " denotes such combinations 
of mental elements as neither having any direct anal- 
ogy in actual life, nor possessing sufficient aesthetic 
beauty to be taken up into ideals, arouse no passion or 
intense feeling, and find their artistic justification only 
in a certain delicacy of conception, which easily shades 
into over-refinement and conceit. 

Things that come from the heart direct, not by the medium of 
the fancy. 1796. Lamb, Letters, I., p. 18. 

Eancy, the faculty of bringing together images dissimilar in the 
main by some one point or more of likeness, as in such a pas- 
sage as this : — 

Eull gently now she takes him by the hand, 
A lily prisoned in a pail of snow. 

1810. Coleridge, IY., p. 48. 

.Fancy has no other counters to play with but fixities and defi- 
nites. The fancy is indeed no other than a mode of memory 
emancipated from the order of time and space, . . . while it is 
blended with and modified by that empirical phenomenon of the 
will which we express by the word choice. But equally with the 
ordinary memory the fancy must receive all its materials ready 
made from the law of association. 1817. Coleridge, III., 
p. 364. 

All the fancies that fleet across the imagination, like shadows on 
the grass of the tree-tops, are not entitled to be made small sep- 
arate poems of about the length of one's little finger. (Of Ten- 
nyson's early poems.) 1832. Wilson, YL, p. 151. 

Imagination belongs to Tragedy or the serious muse ; Fancy to the 
comic. 1844. Hunt, Im. & Fancy, p. 26. 

Wit ... is fancy in its most wilful, and, strictly speaking, its 
least poetical state. 1846. Hunt, Wit & Humour, p. 8. 

Fancy ... is related to color; imagination to form. 1876. 
Emerson, Let. & Soc. Aims, p. 33. 

The fancy of young poets is apt to be superabundant. It is the 
imagination that ripens with the judgment, and asserts itself as 
the shaping power in a deeper sense than belongs to it as a mere 



A HISTORY OF EyGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 109 

maker of pictures when the eyes are shut. Lowell, Rep. Men, 
p. 116. 
The Rape of the Lock ranks by itself as one of the purest works 
of human fancy; whether that fancy be strictly poetical or not is 
another matter. 1871. Lowell, IY., p. 36. 
The distinction between fancy and imagination is, in brief, that 
fancy deals with the superficial resemblances, and imagination 
with the deeper truths that underlie them. 1S79. Stephen, 
Hrs. in a Library, p. 203. 
Imagination and fancy are both intellectual faculties, and the main 
function of both is to detect and exhibit the resemblances which 
exist among objects of sense or intelligence. 18S1:. T. Aii>'OLD. 
Hist, of Eng. Lit., p. 55S. 
Fantastic (11.) : Webbe to present. 

Though not fantastical and full of love quirks and quiddities. 

1588. MuNDAY, Har. Mis , lY., p, 220. 
Little niceties and fantastical operations of art. Pope, X., p. 532. 
The fantastic is dangerously near to the grotesque, while the im- 
agination, where it is most authentic, is most serene. Lowell, 
0. E. D., p. 71. 
Fantasy (XXlll.) : Camden to present. 

Eantasy, the image-making power, common to all who have the 
gift of dreams. Lowell, 111., p. 31. 
Farce (XXL) : Hurd to present. 

Earce . . . object merely to excite laughter. Hukd, 11., p. 30. 
The ''Taming of the Shrew" for its extravagance ought rather to 
be called a farce than a comedy. Hr^'i, Wit & H., p. 117. 
Far-fetched (lY.) : T. Wil. to present. 

Jejune, far-fetched, and frigid. Hazlitt, Age of El., p. 211. 
Far-sought (Yll ) : Ear-sought phrase of literary curiosity. Lowell, 

Prose, 11.. p. 106. 
Fascinating (XXll.) b : Hal. to present. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., 

p. 102. 
Fashionable (lY.) : Jef. to present. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., 

p. 278. 
Fast: Straight, fast, and temperate style. xIscham, 111., p. 20i. 
Fastidious (lY.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, L, p. 165. 
Faultless (XXlI.) : Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 288. 



110 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Fecundity (XYI.) : Whip., Low. 

Fecundity of iuvention. Lowell, Prose, VL, p. 134. 
Feeble (XIL) : Ascliam to present. 

A feeble, diffuse, showy, Asiatic redundancy. Hazlitt, Sp. of 
Age, p. 204. 
FEELING (XY.). 

The term ''feeling" has grown rapidly in use during 
the present century. It indicates a certain delicacy of 
mental response or of susceptibility to the full meaning 
of the given facts of experience, and an equal delicacy 
and susceptibility in blending these given facts with the 
aesthetic intuitions and ideals of the mind. In so far 
as ''feeling" merely responds to the given facts of ex- 
perience, it often seems to be wholly passive and to 
become allied to taste and to the proprieties. But in 
so far as it denotes susceptibility in blending these 
given facts with ideals, it is active, and is allied to 
sympathy and the imagination. " Feeling," thus rep- 
resenting a general susceptibility in the mental organ- 
ism, is a fundamental capacity, is always genuine, is 
never merely fancied or assumed. Hence it is occa- 
sionally made to stand merely for earnestness and 
sincerity* 

We can always feel more than we can imagine, and the most art- 
ful fiction must give way to truth. 1753. S. Johnson, IV., 
p. 79. 

Pathos and feelhig. 1778. T. Warton, p. 661. 

That same equipoise of the faculties, during which the feelings are 
representative of all past experience. 1810. Coleridge, IV., 
p. 75. 

Mere peculiarity of taste or feeling. 1810. Jeeerey, III., p. 292. 

Vague and unlocalized feelings, the failing too mucli of some 
poetry of the present day. 1818. Lamb, Elia, p. 293. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. Ill 

It may be interesting to you to pick out some Hues from Hyperion, 
and put a X to the false beauty proceeding from art, and an || 
to the true voice of feeling. 1819. Keats, Letters, p. 321. 

In poetry . . . strong feeling is always a sure guide. It rarely 
oifends against good taste, because it instinctively chooses the 
most effectual means of communicating itself to others. 1S25. 
Beyaxt, L, p. 10. 

(To W. R. Hamilton.) Your verses are animated with true poetic 
spirit, as they are evidently the product of strong feeling. 1S27. 
WOEDSWOHTH, III., p. 293. 

These old songs (of Burns') were his models, because tliey were 
models of certain forms of feeling having a necessary and eternal 
existence. 1S41. T\'ilsox, YIL, p. 100. 
Felicity (lY.) : Put. to present. 

Much in use. That which is happw and well chosen 
in composition, the result of the most delicate and 
instinctive sense of propriety. 

AYhat instinctive felicity of versification, Lowell. IY., p. 21. 

The fehcity and idiomatic naivete ... of Walton. Mathevts, 
Lit. St., p. 7. 
Feminine (XII.) : Car. to present. 

Lerninine vehemence. Carlyle, L, p. 122. 

A feminine intensity. Dowdex, St. in Lit., p. lOS. 
Ferocious (XII.) : Jef. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 2 SI. 
FertiUty (XYl.) : Dry. to present. 

L^niformly associated with the more active artistic 
impulses and processes, with energy, suggestion, fancy, 
invention, and imagination. 

Lertility of invention. T. TYartox, p. 978. 

Fertihty of fancy. S. Johnson, YIL, p. 12. 

Fertile imagination. Scott, Life of Dryden, p. 12. 
Fervent (XY.) : Camp, to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 
Fervor (XY.) : Swim Dowden, Tr. k St., p. 225. 
Feverish (XY.) : Stephen, Swin. 
FICTITIOUS (YIIL). 



112 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

''Fiction," or the '"^fictitious/' has been regarded by 
the critics in two different senses. Occasionally the 
As poetical term has indicated the poetical heightening 
en ancemen . ^^, enhancement of the facts or historical 
truth represented. This use of the term occurs chiefly 
in theoretical discussions, and is uniformly given a 
positive and favorable literary significance. 

Two requisites of universal poetry, namely, that license of expres- 
sion which we call the style of poetry, and that license of 
representation which we call fiction. The style is, as it 
were, the body of poetry, fiction is its soul. Hurd, II., pp. 
10, 11. 

Fiction in poetry is not the reverse of truth, but her soft and en- 
chanted companion. Campbell, I., p. 327. 

As usually employed in actual criticism, however, 
''fiction" is by no means necessarily in alliance with 
As an imagi- the " poctical." It represents an imaginarv 

nary series 

of events. series of events, which, previous to the pres- 
ent century, was looked upon with more or less disfa- 
vor as a falsification of the truth, but which in the 
present century has usually been regarded as a health- 
ful form of literary art, and tlms as constituting a class 
or species of literature. 

There are some that are not pleased with fiction, unless it be 
bold ; not only to exceed the work, but also the possibility of 
nature, 1650. Hobbes, IV., p. 451. 

Where there is leisure for fiction there is little grief. S. Johnson, 
YII., p. 119. 

The monstrosities of fiction may be found in the bookseller's shops 
. . . but they have no place in literature, because in literature 
the one aim of art is the beautiful. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., 
p. 292. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 113 

Fidelity (YIII.): T. War. to present. 

In translating a poetical writer, there are two kinds gf fidelity to 
be aimed at: fidelity to the matter and fidelity to the manner of 
the original. Jeffrey, I., p. 417. 
Eidelity to the essential truth of things. Dowde^', Shak., etc., 
p. 73. 
Fierce (XII.) : Jef., Swin. 

Fiery (XII.) : Sted. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 7. 
FIGURATIVE (VIIL). 

Until within the eighteenth century, figurative lan- 
guage was usually regarded as an ornamented falsifi- 
cation of the truth, the source at once of 

., .. , T P 1 T As ornament, 

aesthetic pleasure and oi the most puzzling 

uncertainty and obscurity. 

This ornament is given by figures and figurative speeches. Put- 

TENHAM, p. 150. 

Shakespeare's whole style is so pestered with figurative expres- 
sions^ that it is as affected as it is obscure. Dryden, YL^ 
p. 255. 

Occasionally, — especially during the latter half of 
the eighteenth century, — the " figurative " ^g ^^ p^^^. 
and the " poetical " have been more or less ^^* 
completely identified with each other. 

Poetical, that is highly figurative expression. Hurd, L, p. 102. 
Poetical . . . that is figurative and emphatic. Hall am, II., p. 
207. 

Usually, however, — especially during the present 
century, — the ''figurative" represents viv- As vividness 

. . of imagina- 

idness of mental imagery and intensity of tion. 
imaginative power, which is of itself by no means neces- 
sarily poetical. (See " Poetical.") 



114 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Tally and Demostlieues spoke often figuratively but not poetically, 
and'tlie very figures of oratory are vastly different from those of 
poetry. Pope, VIII., p. 218. 
To say that a man is a great thinker or a fine thinker, is but an- 
other expression for saying that he has a schematizing (or, to 
use a plainer but less accurate expression, a figurative) under- 
standing. De Quils^CEY, X., p. 115. 
Figured (Y.) : Figured or poetical expressions. Jeeeeey, L, p. 

223. 
Filthy (XIV.) : Dry. to present. 

Coarse and filthy. Jeferey, L, p. 219. 
Final (XXI.) : Swin., Min. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 165. 
Fine (XXII.) ^ : T. TViL to present. 

Haleigh's Cynthia ... a fine and sweet invention. Harvey, in 
Marlowe's Sliak. by Boswell, II., p. 579. 
Finery (V.) : Byron to present. 

It is in their finery that the new school is most vulgar. 1821. 
Life and Letters, p. 507. 
Finesse : Jef. to present. 

Delicacy and finesse. Jeffrey, II., p. 370. 

All beauty is in the long run only finesse of truth. Pater, Ap., 
p. 6. 
Finical (V.) : Jef., Haz. Jeffrey, I., p. 222. 
Finished (V.) : Camp, to present. 

That which gives evidence both of careful execution 
and of good taste. 

The early productions of Pope were perhaps ... too finished, 

correct, and pure. J. Wartox, I., p. S3. 
Greene ... is sometimes more laboured than finished. Hunt, 

Wit & Humour, p. 308. 
The poetry of Gray is finished, perhaps I should rather say lim- 
ited. Lowell, Lat. Lit. Es., p. 16. 
Fire (XII.) : Jef. to present. 

Pire and force. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 183. 
Firm (XI.) : Haz. to present. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 65. 
Fitful (11.) : Broken or fitful. Swinburne, Mis., }). 237. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 115 

Fitness (lY.) : Ascliam to present. 

Used very little during the eighteenth century. Adap- 
tation of the elements of composition to one another : a 
popular expression for the term ''propriety," considered 
in a somewhat mechanical sense. 

Eitness of character . . . Tromau must be woman, etc. Aris- 
totle, Poetics, p. 47. 

Pleased with a work where nothing 's just or fit. Pope, IP, p. 50. 

There is a fitness and propriety in every part. L an dor, YIIP, 
p. 386. 
Flaccid (XIL) : Swin., Gosse. 

Placcid and untunable verse of Byron. Swinbur?s^e, Mis., p. 81. 
Flagging (XYIII.) : Mor. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 86. 
Flagrant : Hal., Gosse. 

Plagrant absurdity. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., IP, p. 262. 
Flamboyant (Y.) : The flamboyant style in modern English prose. 

Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxi. 
Flashy (Y.) : Jef., Gosse. 

Noisy and flashy. Gosse, Prom Shak., etc., p. 127. 
Flat (XII.) : B. Jon. to present. 

What is flat ought to be plain. Laxdor, IY., p. 61. 
Flavor (XXII.) b : Sted. Saintsbury, Hist. Pr. Lit., p. 203. 
Flawless (XXL) : Swin. Dowden] Tr. & St., p. 259. 
Fleshliness : Pleshliness . . . oddly enough is found in Wordsworth. 

Lowell, Prose IY., p. 371. 
Fleshly: Pleshly sculpture. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 
Fleshy : We say it is a fleshy style, carnosa, when there is much 

])eriphrasis and circuit of words. B. Jonson, Timber, p. 65. 
Flexible (XYIII.) : S. John, to present. 

Plexible bucolic hexameter. Stedman, Yic. Poets, p. 226. 
Flimsy : J. War. to present. 

Plimsy and insipid decorum. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 102. 
Flippant "^(XI.) : Jef., Whip. 

Yulgar flippancy. Jeffrey, L, p. 217. 
Floribund (Y.) : Gay and floribund. Gosse, From Sliak., etc.. 

p. 155. 



116 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Florid (Y.) : Shaftes. to present. 

This painted Horid style. Pope, YIII., p. 219. 

The groves appear all drest with wreaths of flowers, 
And from their leaves drop aromatic showers. 
This is in the florid style. Swift, XIIL, p. 73. 
Floundering (XVIII.) : Swin., Saints. 
Flowing (XVIII.) : K. James to present. 

Refers both to the sounds and to the thoughts of a 
composition. 

Sounds . . . most flowing and shpper upon the tongue. PuT- 

TENHAM, p. 129. 
The equable flow of the sentiments. Hazlitt, Age of EL, p. 56. 
Flowerless (V.) : Elowerless and pallid. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 

137. 
Flowery (V.) : Camp, to present. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., 

p. 48. 
Fluent (XYIII.) : Dekker to present. 

The fluency which was a besetting sin of Whittier's poetry, wheu 
released from the fetters of rhyme and meter, ran into wordi- 
ness. Beers, St. in Am. Lit., p. 160. 
Fluid (XYIII.) : Eluidity of meter. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., 

p. 124. 
Flute-like (X.) : Swin., Gosse. 

Clear flute-like notes of Cynthia. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., 
p. 56. 
Fluttering: Light, airy, fluttering. Whipple, Es. & Rev., IL, p. 65. 
Folly (XX.) : Pure childishness or mere folly. Jeffrey, I., p. 271. 
Foolish (XX.) : Jef. Swinburne, Mis., p. 110. 
FORCE (XII.). 

There are no distinctly marked periods in the history 
of the term "force." Occasionally "force" seems to 
As effective- designate a general efficiency of thought and 
°^^* language, — an interesting thought treated in 

accordance with the best known rules of composition. 

Justness and force of the representation. Jeffrey, II., p. 285. 
Ease, force, and perspicuity. Hazlitt, Table Talk, p. 338. 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISE CRITICAL TERMS. 117 

Often the term -'force'' indicates a mere vividness in 
the impression which the literary work pro- 

. As vividiiess. 

daces upon the mmd oi the reader. 

Porce, —from vivid imagery. T. Wartox, p. 661; also Byrox. 

Letters, p. 501. 
Force, — from figures of speech. T. Wartox, p. '207- 

More usually, however, — especially during the pres- 
ent century, — ^' force ^' has been regarded as the native 
power of the mind, asserting itself in ways 

aS jK)Wcr« 

which often run counter to regular methods 
of composition, which often, indeed, violate every canon 
of artistic refinement, and which acknowledge no law of 
expression except that which is immediately prompted 
by the intensity of the conception, and by the ethical 
purpose which this conception is intended to subserve. 

The uncomDion uuiou of so much facility and force. 1756. J. 
Wartox, II., p. 267. 

These monosjllables have much force aud energy : 
All good to me becomes 
Bane. (MHton.) Id., I., p. 317- 

Atterbury . . . writes more with elegance and correctness than 
with any force of thinking or reasoning. Id., II., p. 361. 

Eorce of poetry. 1751. S. JoHysox, III., p. 293. 

Intensity is the great and prominent distinction of Lord Byron's 
writings. He seldom gets beyond force of style, nor has he 
produced any regular vrork or masterly vrhole. 1825. Haz- 
LiTT, Sp. of Age, p. 121. 

If by force you mean beauty manifesting itself with power, I main- 
tain that the Abbe Delille has more force than Milton. (Quoted 
disapprovingly, as b. s a 2/^ re mi judgment.) M. Aexold, Cr. Es., 
1st S., p. 279^ 

What Dryden valued above all things was force, though in his 
haste he is wilUng to make a shift with its counterfeit effect. 
1868. Lowell, III., p. 183. 



118 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Forced (VII.) : Dry. to present. 

The strained and unnatural; usually assumed to be 
the result of conscious effort. 

lorced and unnatural. Goldsmith, IY., p. 283. 
A forced and almost grotesque materializing of abstractions. 
Pater, Ap., p. 232. 
FORM (II.). 

The word "form" has been employed in criticism in 
three more or less distinct ways. Previous to the 
As verbal pi^esent century, and in large part during 
expression, ^j^j^ century, the word has merely repre- 
sented the mechanical expression of thought in lan- 
guage, — punctuation, capitalization, the grammatical 
relations of words, the construction of phrases, clauses, 
sentences, paragraphs, and perhaps the rhetorical re- 
quirements of composition as a whole. 

What I can say concerning our English poetry, first in the matter 

thereof, then in the form, Webbe, p. 38. 
No work of true genius dares want its appropriate form. Cole- 

BIDGE, IV., p. 54. 

Often the term indicates that portion of the mechani- 
cal construction of composition which answers more 
As the sense ^^' ^^^^ directly to the sense of rhythm and 
andprSor^ proportion in the mind, — the metrical move- 
ment, the balance of phrases, clauses, and 
sentences, the harmonious adaptation of all the parts 
of a composition to one another, the composition, how- 
ever, being considered as a completed product, and the 
adaptation being determined entirely, perhaps, by past 
attnimnent, by precedent, and by custom. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 119 

The word Eorm has also more limited application^ as, for example, 
when we use it to imply that nice sense of proportion and adap- 
tation which results in style. Lowell, 0. E. D., p. 56. 

I am not sure that Form, which is the artistic sense of decorum 
controlling the co-ordination of parts and ensuring their harmo- 
nious subservience to a common end, can be learned at all, 
whether of the Greeks or elsewhere. Lowell, Lat. Lit. Es., 
p. 144. 

Occasionally, in theory, if not in applied criticism, 
the term denotes the develgping sense of beauty and 
proportion in literature, as referring to the ^s sensibility 
mechanical construction of the composition, ^J fSrmai^^"^ 

1,1 • , c J. r J.1 l^ 11. construction. 

to the picturesque leatures oi the thought 
presented, and perhaps in a measure to the representa- 
tion of moral truths and principles. 

That there is an intimate relation, or at any rate a close analogy 

between Eorm, in this its highest attribute, and imagination, is 

evident if we remember that the imagination is the shaping 

faculty^ Lowell, 0. E. D., p. 56, 

Formality (IV ) : Jef. to present. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, pp. 256, 257. 

Foul (XIV.) : Low. to present. 

Roderick Random ... so foul as to be fit only for a well-seasoned 
reader. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit"., III., p. 259. 
Fragile : Whip., Gosse. 

Fragility of Tennyson's figures. Whipple, Es. & Rev., p. 341. 
Fragrance (XXII.)*^: Swin., Beers. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., 

p. 4. 
Frank (XIV.) : Low. to present. 

Frank unconsciousness. Lowell, Prose, I., pp. 247, 248. 
Frantic (XV.) : Erantic invective. Jepfuey, I., p. 217. 
Free (XVIII.) : Rymer to present. 

Much in use. Unconstrained movement. Usually 
refers to the mechanical construction of composition, 
occasionally to the thought. 



120 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The more we attend to the composition of Milton's harmony, the 
more we shall be sensible how he loved to vary his pauses, his 
measures, and his feet, which gives that enchanting air of free- 
dom and wildness to his versification, unconfined by any rules 
but those which his own feelings and the nature of his subject 
demanded. Gray, I., pp. 332, 333. 
A young writer can hardly aiFord to be quite direct and free in his 
movements, lest he should be violent and awkward. Dowden, 
St. in Lit., p. 129. 
T'reedom being thus the dominant note of Elizabethan poetry. J. 
Symonds, Es., Sp. & Sug.,-p. 394. 
Frenzy (XV.) : Laboured frenzy of diction. Whipple, Es. & Rev., 

p. 176. 
FRESH (IX.). 

The term "fresh" is largely negative in its significa- 
tion. That is said to be fresh which is in no sense 
bookish, conventional, or pedantic. In its positive sig- 
nificance, the term is uniformly associated with such 
conceptions as sincerity, spontaneity, energy, the im- 
passioned, and the romantic. 

Fresh . . . romantic spirit. Campbell, p. 81. 

Eresh as from the hand of nature. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 104. 

Ereshness of antiquity. Id., p. 121. 

Eresh and lively. Hallam, Lit. Hist., L, pp. 130, 131. 

Neither " eloquence '' nor " poetry " are the exact words with 
which it would be appropriate to describe the fresh style of the 
Waverley Novels. Bagehot, II., p. 151. 

Cbaucer ... is fresh . . . because he sets before us the world as 
it honestly appeared to Geoffrey Chaucer, and not a world as it 
seemed proper to certain people that it ought to appear. Low- 
ell, 111., p. 361. 

Bunyan was conscious that greatness had been thrust upon him ; 
and one misses accordingly in the second part something of the 
delightful freshness, the naturalness, the entire unconscious de- 
votion of heart and singleness of purpose, which are so conspic- 
uous in the first part. T. Aiinold, Man. of Eng Lit., p. 320, 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 121 

Tresh and almost childlike. Id., p. 455. 
Katiiral, fresh, and spontaneous. Beehs, Outline, etc., p. 90. 
Frigid (XV.) : Mil. to present. 

A lack of sincere, genuine feeling, which may result 
from two causes : — 

I. From a total lack of feeling of any kind. 

Over-elaboration ends in frigidity. Loxginus, p. 6. 
Jejune, far-fetched, and frigid. Hazlitt, Age of EL, p. 211. 
Erigid and ridiculous pedantry. Id., p. 137. 

II. From the affectation of too much feeling. 

Those who express themselves with this poetic air, produce by 
their want of taste both the ridiculous and the frigid. Aeis- 
TOTLE, Rhet., p. "216. 
According to the definition of Theophrastus, the frigid in style is 
that which exceeds the expression suitable to the subject. 
Goldsmith, L, p. 378. 
The frigid ... a failure to stir up in the reader the emotions 

affected in the composition. S. Joiixsox, YIL, p. 36. 
Erigid fervours in poetry. Dowdex, Shak., etc., p. 63. 
Frippery (Y.) : Macaulay to present. Whipple, Es. & Rev., p. 269. 
Frivolous (XI.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II. , p. 479. 
Fruitful (XYI ) : Swinburne, Es. & St. p. 188. 
Fugitive (XI.): Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, Mis., p. 53. 
Full-bodied (XII.) : Dense and full-bodied lines. Gosse, Life of 

C()ii2:reve, p. 2S. 
Fulness (XI.) ^ : B. Jonson to present. 

Refers both to the thought and to the sound of com- 
position. As referring to the thought, it may indicate 
either emotional or intellectual affluence or copiousness. 

The verses . . . sweet, smooth, full, and strong. IIymek, 2d Pt., 

p. 79. 
The violin's fulness and the violin's intensity are in the sonnets 

from the Portuguese. Dowdex, Tr. & St., p. 213. 



122 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Fulsome (XIV.) : Mil. to present. 

Eulsome doggerel Swinburne, Mis., p. 211. 
Fusion (XIII.) : Haz. to present. 

The term represents both logical and emotional co- 
herence and continuity, the blending of all the elements 
of a composition so as to produce a perfect unity of 
effect. 

There is no principle of fusion in the work. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, 

p. 179. 
Now passion, imagination, and will are fused together, and Romeo 
who was weak, has at length become strong. Dowden, Shak., 
etc., p. 118. 
Fustian ; (XIX.) : Gosson to present. 

Eustian of Marlowe's style. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 451. 
Futile (XXII.) r/: Wil. to present. 

Weak and futile. Wilson, YIII., p. 17. 
GaUant: Put. to present century. 

I. The excellent ; noble ; ^sthetically good. 
Gallant verse ... of Phaer. Webbe, p. U. 

II. Chivalric ; courteous ; not really a critical term. 

The songs and smaller pieces of Dryden have smoothness, wit, and 
Avhen addressed to ladies, gallantry in profusion. Scott, Life 
of Dryden, I.,, pp. 425, 426. 
Game (I.): Elegancies of a Galhc style. Gosse, Prom Shak., etc, 

p. 157. 
GarruUty (XIX.) b . Car. to present. 

Sociable garrulity. Jeffrey, I., p. 366. 
Gasping: Swinburne, Mis., p. 1^» 
Gaudy (V.): Blair to present. 

Addison's style is splendid without being gaudy. Blaie, Rhet., 
p. 209. 
Gay (XIV.): S. John, to present. 

Gay and sportive. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 278. 



A BISTORT OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 123 

Generality (YIIL) 6: Swift to present. 

Not usually regarded as conducive to the best liter- 
ary effects. 

What distiugiiisLes Homer and Shakespeare from all other poets is 

that thev do not give their readers general ideas ; every image is 

the particular and uualieuable property of the person who uses 

it. J. Wartox, I, p. 318. 
Cowley pursues liis thoughts to the last ramifications, by which he 

loses the grandeur of generality. S. Joh^'sox, VII., p. 8S. 
An unaffecting generality. TV'ilsox, A^III., p. 41. 
Generous (XIV.) : J. lYar., Swin. J. AYarton, II., p. 8. 
Genial (XIV.) : Car. to present. 

T^'here there is genius there should be geniahtv. Laxdor, IY., 

P-51. 
Genius — that is, geniality — dwells in unnumbered bosoms. TTil- 

sox, Y., p. 352. 
Genius is that mode of intellectual power which moves in alhance 

with the genial nature. De Quixcey, XI., p. 382. 
GENIUS (XXIII.). 

The history of the term ''genius" may be divided 
into four periods. During the first period, which con- 
tinued until the middle of the eighteenth ^^ native 
century, ''genius" was closely related in ^^§^^^^ty- 
meaning to the term " nature." " Genius," however, 
unlike " nature," denoted natural capacity or native 
ingenuity, not only as controlling the original impulse 
or inception of the literary work, but also as entering 
into every phase and feature of the actual process of 
its composition. 

Betwixt genius (acumen) and diligence there is very little room 
left for art (ratio) ; art only shows you where to look, and where 
that lies which you want to find. Cicero, Orations, p. 202. 

A poet no industry can make if his own genius be not carried into 



124 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

it. And therefore is it an old proverb : Orator fit, poeta nas- 
citur. 1383. Sidney, p. 46. 

A poet ought always to have that instinct or some good genius 
ready to serve his hero upon occasion, to prevent these unpleas- 
ant shocking indecencies. Rymer, 1st Pt., p. 64. 

I believe it is no wrong observation, that persons of genius, and 
those who are most capable of art, are always most fond of 
nature ; as such are chieily sensible that aU art consists in the 
imitation and study of nature. 1713. Pope, X., p. 532. 

By genius I would understand that power, or rather those powers 
of the mind which are capable of penetrating into all things 
within our reach and knowledge, and of distinguishing their 
essential differences. These are no other than invention and 
judgment; and they are both called by the collective name of 
genius, as they are of those gifts of nature which we bring with 
us into the world. Pielding, T. Jones, IP, pp. 5, 6. 

The second period includes the last half of the eigh- 
teenth century. " Genius " represented the power of 
As original pi^oducing something new, either as to the 
impulse. thought or as to the method of expressing 

it. Hence " genius " stood opposed to the established 
rules of art : it was the most general and at the same 
time the most vague expression possible for the pro- 
gressive tendencies in literature, and over the more 
specific terms which denoted these tendencies it exer- 
cised a strong schematizing influence. 

We see that the most accurate observation of dramatic rules with- 
out genius is of no effect. 1756. J. Warton, Pope, I., p. 69. 

By genius is meant those excellencies that no study or art can 
communicate, such as elevation, expression, description, wit, 
humour, passion, etc. 1758. Goldsmith, IY., p. 418. 

I am convinced that rules alone never made a genius. Conscious 
I am that all the fine reasoning and delicate remark that liave 
been exhausted of late years upon this subject, are not equal to 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 125 

one single scene dictated by a tine imagination. (Quoted from 

Yoltaire.) Id., p. li. 
Genius full of resources, master of the rides, but master also of 

the reasons for the rules, often appears to despise them. 1759. 

GiBBOX, lY., p. 4:0. 
The highest praise of genius is original invention. 17S1. S. 

Johnson, VII., p. 14;2. 

During tlie present century, '-genius/' when referring 
to a mental process, denotes both original impulse and 
native power in giving this impulse literary expression ; 
when referring to the literary work as a completed 
product, it represents a constant appeal from literature 
to life, from established methods of composition to 
other possible methods, which have not yet been at- 
tempted. Moreover, in the present century, " genius " 
indicates not simply impulse or native force, but also 
a certain refinement of force which gives to it artistic 
value. " Genius " thus has at its command, at least in 
a measure, its own laws of literary expression. It not 
only represents progressive tendencies in art, but it 
represents progressive tendencies which are organic in 
their nature. 

During the early portion of the century, '• genius " 
was supposed to manifest itself chiefly in an increase 
of sensibilitv and in bold fhehts of the imao- . ^ ^ 

•^ ^ G As an artistic 

ination. It evolved its own laws of art, and "^p^^^- 
it was thought to be wholly unconscious, to elude all 
immediate detection and analysis. 

Of genius iu the fine arts, the only infallible sign is the widening 
the sphere of human sensibility. 1S02. Wokdswoete, 1 1., 
p. 127. 



126 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The aiicieuts had no word that properly expresses what we mean 
by ihe word genius. They perhaps had not the thing. Their 
minds appear to have been too exact, too retentive, too minute 
and subtle, too sensible to the external differences of things, too 
passive under their impressions to admit of those bold and rapid 
combinations, those lofty flights of fancy, which, glancing from 
heaven to earth, unite the most opposite extremes, and draw the 
happiest illustrations from things the most remote. 1807- 
Hazlitt, Sk. & Essays, p. 424. 

No work of true genius dares want its appropriate form . . . for 
it is even this that constitutes it genius, — the power of acting 
creatively under laws of its own origination. 1810. Cole- 
ridge, lY., p. 54. 

Sensibility both quick and deep . . . may be deemed a compon- 
ent part of genius. 1817. Id., III., p. 175. 

Genius is unconscious of its existence and action . . . e. g. Mil- 
ton's preference for Paradise Regained. 1826. Hazlitt, PL 
Sp., pp. 160-175. 

All genius is metaphysical ; because the ultimate end of genius is 
ideal, however it may be actualized by incidental and accidental 
circumstances. 1832. Coleridge, VI., p. 411. 

Men of humor are always in some degree men of genius ; wits are 
rarely so. 1833. Id., VI, p. 481. 

Daring the latter portion of the century, " genius " 
has been closely related to the intellectual processes 
, ^^. , and to action. It usually refers to an in- 

As ethical, '^ 

an^d^i^stic t^nse activity of the mind, an activity which 
power. from its intensity is oblivious of itself, and 

thus seems to attain results of whose origin no account 
can be given, an activity which represents a blending, 
as it were, of all the powers of the mind, intellectual, 
aesthetic, and ethical. Tliis concentrated intense ac- 
tivity of the mind, however, has not been regarded as 
having its origin and outcome in sensibility, so much 
as in a subtle intellectual analysis, and in impulses 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 127 

toward action, toward the realization in some manner 
of the intensely conceived thouglit, purpose, or ideal. 
Many efforts have been made to define the term '• ge- 
nius " in the light of modern psychological knowledge, 
but in criticism for the last half-century, the term has 
been passing rapidly out of use. 

Geuius is intellectaal power impreguated with the moral nature, aud 
expresses a synthesis of the active in man with his original or- 
ganic capacity of pleasure and pain. 183S. De Quixcey, III., 
p. U. 

Genius is nothing less than the possession of all the powers and 
impulses of humanity in their greatest possible strength, and most 
harmonious combination. IS 4^8. Whipple, Lit. and Life, p. 159. 

Enough that we recognize in Keats that indefinable newness and 
unexpectedness which we caU genius. 1854. Lowell, Lat. 
Lit. Es., I., p. 242. 

Burns . . . possessed in as high degree, I think, as ever man pos- 
sessed, the power of which Coleridge speaks in defining the 
term genius, the power to combine the child's sense of wonder 
and novelty with appearances which the experience of years had 
rendered famihar. 1859. Bryaxt, XL, p. 318. 

"Creative energy of genius " is said to be in opposition to ''form." 
"method," "precision," "proportions," "arrangement," — ail 
of them things . . . where iutelhgence proper comes in. 1865. 
M. ARXOLcrCr. Es., 1st S., p. 51. 

Genius ... is the ruling disunity of poetry. Id., p. 62. 

A man of genius Lessing . . . nu questionably was, if genius may 
be claimed no less for force tlian fineness of mini], — for the 
intensity of conviction tliat inspires tlie understanding as much 
as for that apprehension of beauty which gives energy of will to 
imagination, — but a poetic genius he was not. 1866. Low- 
ell, II., p. 221. 

Genius lending itself to embody the new desire of man's mind as it 
had embodied the old. 1868. Id., III., p. 65. 

The term genius when used with empiiasis imphes imagination. 
1876. Emersox, Let. & Soc. Aims, ]i. 22. 



128 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Geiiius. therefore, manifested in any liigli degree, must be taken 

to include intellect ; if the words are to be used in this sense^ 

genius begins where intellect ends. 1S79. Stephen, Hrs. in 

a Lib., p. 330. 

Those dark and capricious suggestions of genius. 1S80. Pateu, 

Ap., p. 74. 
Byron's poetry has two main constituents, — passion and wit. . . . 
The great thing in Byron is genius. 1878. Bossetti, Lives 
of the Poets, p. 307. 
Humor is the overflow of genius. 1892. Stedman, Nat. & El. 

of Poetry, p. 215. 
The whole belief in genius seems to me rather a mischievous 
superstition. . . . Does it mean any tiling more or less than 
the mastery which comes to any man according to liis powers 
and diUgence in any direction? Howells, Grit. & Piction, 
pp. 87, 88. 
To be a genius is to find one's self capable of perceiving ulterior 
truths of far-reaching consequence, without passing through all 
the intermediate stages of approach and preparatiou. . . . The 
mental activity is of the same kind as that wliich comprehends 
a ^' brave attack" as ''an attack by brave men." 1893. Sher- 
man, Analytics of Lit., p. 121. 
Gentle (XIX.) : B. Jon. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 24. 
Gentlemanlike (Y.) : Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 66. 
Gentlemanly (Y-): Hal. to present. 

Manly and gentlemanly. Whipple, Am. Lit., etc., p. 89. 
Genuine (YIL) : Goldsmith to present. 

Presh and genuine. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 116. 
Germanisms (1.) : The Germanisms of Carlyle. Saintsbuky, Eng. 

Pr. St., p. xxxi. 
Gibberish (XXII.) : Whipple, Es. & Bev., I., p. 412. 
Gigantic (XL) : J. War. to present. 

The Egyptians . . . mistook the gigantic for the sublime, and 
greatness of bulk for greatness of manner. J. Warton, I., 
p. 350. 
Paustus himself is a rude sketch, but it is a gigantic one. Haz- 
LTTT, Age of EL, ]). 43. 
Glaring (V.) : Pope to present. Pope, X., p. 549. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 129 

Glitter (V.) : Haz. to present- 
Glittering but still graceful conceits. Hazlitt, Age of EL, p. 178. 
An unseasonable glitter of rhetoric. De Quince y, Y., p. 99. 

Gloomy (XIY.) : Jef. to present. 

Grand and gloomy sketch. Jeffrey, II., p. 476. 

Glory : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 24. 

Glossy (V.) : A meretricious gloss. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 121. 

Good-sense (XX.) a : Jef. to present. 

The reflection of this quality of solid good sense, absolutely scorn- 
ing any aliment except that of soHd facts, is the so-called realism 
of Fielding's novels. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., III., p. 72. 

Gorgeous (Y.) : Webbe to present. 

Gorgeous diction of Thompson. Jeffrey, IL, p. 88. 

GOTHIC (IX.). 

'' Gothic" has been employed in criticism chiefly as 
a schematizing term, being applied directly to litera- 
ture but very seldom. Four periods may be distin- 
guished in the history of the term. 

During the first period, which extended until within 
the early portion of the eighteenth century, " Gothic " 
indicated whateyer was considered as rude, Ascmdityof 

11 T . T -Tki conceit and 

barbarous, or crude m literature. Rhyme ornament, 
was thought to be a Gothic deyice, an uncouth orna- 
ment. Forced conceits and wild fancies of all kinds 
were classed as Gothic, since they seemed designed 
merely to be striking, and since they caused the sim- 
plifying and unifying conception of the composition, 
as a whole, to be lost sight of in the oyer-emphasis of 
the separate parts and details. 

But now when men kno^Y tlie difference, and have the examples 
botli of the best and the worst, surely to follow rather the Goths 
in rhyming than the Greeks in true versifying, were even to eat 
acorns with swine, when we may freely eat wheat bread amongst 
men. 1568. Ascham, III., p. 219. 



130 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Rhyuae, common to all those peoples called barbarous by the 
Greeks ; but it is the first method and most uuiversal method, 
. . = Trhich give to all human inventions no small credit, 1585. 

PUTTENHAM, p. 26. 

Something of the stiff and Gothic did stick upon our language till 
long after Chaucer. RviiEK, 2d Pt., p. 78. 

The httle Gothic ornaments of epigrammatical conceits, turns, 
points, and quibbles, which are so frequent in the most admired 
of our English poets, and practised by those who want geuius 
and strength to represent, after the manner of the ancients, sim- 
plicity in its natural beauty and perfection. 1710. Addison, 
IL, p. 116. 

As the eye, in surveying a Gotliic building, is distracted by the 
multiplicity of ornaments, and loses the whole by its minute 
attention to tbe parts, so the mind,. in perusing a work over- 
stocked with wit is fatigued and disgusted with the constant 
endeavor to shine and surprise. 1742. D. Hume, I., p. 211. 

The second period includes the greater portion of 
the eighteenth century. Rhyme grew into favor with 
Asstrenetii ^^^^ critics. The Gothic was often placed in 
^d^riigged Opposition to the classic, not as representing 
gran eur. u^qyq barbarity, but as being associated with 
such terms as strength, vividness, imagination, gran- 
deur, and sublimity. Tlie use of the term in this and 
in the succeeding period was little more than a trans- 
ference into literature of the feeling and sentiment 
inspired by a Gothic cathedral. The cathedral was 
conspicuous for its gloomy massiveness, its abrupt em. 
phasis of separate parts, and its lack of formal unity 
in general design. Likewise, during the eighteenth 
century, the term " Gothic," as employed in criticism, 
signified power and grandeur of thought, vivid and 
picturesque imagery, and a unity which lay deeper than 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 131 

mere formal design and construction, — a unity of 
emotional effect. 

To the Bishop of Ptochester : I know you will be so gentle to the 
modern Got lis and Yandals as to allow them to put a few rhymes 
upon tombs or over doors. 1718. Pope, IX., p. 13. 
One may look upon Shakespeare's works in comparison of those 
that are more finished and regular, as upon an ancient majestic 
piece of Gothic architecture, compared with a neat modern build- 
ing; the latter is more elegant and glaring, but the former is 
more strong and solemn. 1725. Id., X., p. 519. 
Gothic imagination . . . bordering often on the most ideal and 
capricious extravagance. 1778. T. Warton, Hist. E. P., p. 257. 
The following portrait is highly charged, and very great in the 
Gothic style of painting: — 

Blake was his berde, and manly was his face : 
The circles of his eyin in his hede, 
They glowdin betwixte yalowe and rede 
And like a lyon lokid he about 
TTith kernpid heris on his browis stout. (Chaucer.) 
177S. T. Wartox, p. 239. 

During the early portion of the present century the 
Gothic was regarded as in no sense crude and unre- 
fined. Its rugged power was transformed as suggestive 

■^^ . grandeur and 

into suggestive power. It became more in- sui)iimit5\ 

tellectual. It usually denoted a supreme intensity of 

conception and force in execution ; a blending of the 

most vivid imagery with the sense of the mysterious 

and the infinite ; a rigid subordination of definite form 

in literature to the thought or principle by which this 

form is continually redetermined. 

Wordsworth compares his works to a Gothic church : — 
Excursion is the body of the church, 
Prelude is the ante-chapel, 
Smaller pieces are oratorios, etc. 

Wordsworth, IT., p. 146. 



132 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Bold, rude Go tliic ■ outline (Macbeth). 1820. Hazlitt, Eliz. 
Lit, p. 19. 

Laid the restless spirit of Gothic quaintness, witticism, and con- 
ceit iu the lap of classic elegance and pastoral simplicity. Id, 
p. 206. 

The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imagina- 
ble. It is no doubt a sublimer effort of genius than the Greek 
style ; but then it depends much more on execution for its 
effect. 1833. Coleridge, VI., p. 461. 

Greek art is beautiful . . . but Gothic art is sublime. Id., IV-^ 
p. 235. 

That magnificent condition of fantastic imagination which ... is 
one of the chief elements of the Northern Gothic mind. 1846. 
EusKiN, St. of Yenice, II., p. 154. 

During the last half of the present century, the terms 
" Gothic " and " romantic " have been employed almost 
As the ro- interchangeably to represent one of the two 
mantic. general and opposing tendencies by which 

the development of literature has been controlled. (See 
Classical.) The early association of the terms '' Gothic" 
and " romantic " was historical in origin, more or less 
accidental, and the terms were by no means identified 
with each other in meaning. In becoming a synonym 
for tlie ''romantic," the '^ Gothic" lost the fierceness 
of its streno;th, the wildness of its su^o:estion. It be- 
came more general and diffused. It denotes the pro- 
gressive tendencies in literature slightly intensified, 
perhaps, over that which is signified by the term " ro- 
mantic." (See " Romantic " for quotations.) 

GRACEFUL (XXII.) d. 

Throughout the history of the term, and especially 
|)revious to the latter portion of the eighteenth century. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 133 

the " graceful " indicated freedom and ease in composi- 
tion, resulting perhaps from choice and finish, but far 

more usually from spontaneous, sincere, and As the spon- 
taneous, natu- 
even negligent methods of expression. rai, and easy. 

Affected metaphors lose their grace. B. Jonson, Timber, p. 60. 
Horace still charms with gracefal negligence. Pope, II., p. 75. 
Ovid shows himself most in a familiar story, where tlie chief grace 

is to be easy and natural. Addison, I., p. 145. 
Samson Agonistes opens with a gracefal abruptness. S. Johnson, 

III., p. 158. 

Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
the "graceful" has usually been associated more closely 
than it had previously been witli the con- As animated 

and free 

ception ot energy, or or moyement, m com- movement, 
position. Grace consists in the absence of difficulty, 
the perfect union of yigor and fluency ; it represents 
the aesthetic sense of action or the poetry of movement. 

Gracefulness is an idea not very different from beauty. ... It 
belongs to posture and motion. In both these to be graceful, 
it is requisite that there be no appearance of difficulty. Burke, 
I., pp. 137, 138. 

Sweet native gracefulness . . . iu Burns. Caelyle, II., p. 15. 

Impetuous, graceful power. Id,, IV., p. 130. 

Grace, that charm so magical because at once so shadowy and so 
potent, that \Yill-o'-the Wisp which in its supreme development 
may be said to involve nearly all that is valuable in poetry. Poe, 
II., pp. 98, 99. 

Grace is but a more refined form of power. Lowell, III., p. 34. 
Gracious (XIV.): Bos. to present. 

So bright, so tender, so gracious. Dowdex, Shak., etc., p. 333. 
Grammatical (I.) : Dry. to present. 

I. Exactness and correctness in the use of sini^le 
words and phrases. Usually a primary literary require- 
ment previous to the present century. 



134 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Shakespeare . . . was uugrammatical and coarse. Dhydex, YI., 

p. 255. 
Shakespeare . . . was nugrannnatical^ perplexed, and obscure. 

1765. S. Johnson, Y., p. 135. 
Pope . . . was not grammatical. 1781. Id., YIII., p. 343. 

II. An exact, clear-cut, and often puristic use of 
language. Usually a very secondary literary require- 
ment during the present century. 

"I've done, begin the rites." 
Here it is the brokenness, the nngrammatical position, the total 

subversion of the period, that charms me. Gray, II., p. 333. 
The grammatical style ... of Newman. M. Arnold, Gel. Lit., 
p. 200. 
Grand (XI.) : Scott to present. 

The grand style, at once noble and natural, Lowell, III., p. 173. 

Shakespeare himself . . . has not of the marks of the master, this 

one : perfect sureness of hand in his style. Alone of English 

poets Milton has it ; he is our great artist in style, our one first 

rate master in the grand style. M. Arnold, Mixed Es., p. 200. 

Grandeur (XL) : Mil. to present. 

The sublime, which is also simple ; vast images or 
conceptions which are not complicated or over-sugges- 
tive, the limits or full import of which are somewhat 
definitely marked. 

The grandeur of the historic style. Miltox, III., p. 498. 

The simplicity of grandeur which fills the imagination. S. John- 
son, IL, p. 178. 

Artless grandeur. Id., VIII. , p. 336. 

Sometimes . . . the intensity of his satire giyes to his poetrv a 
cliaracter of emphatic A^iolence, which borders upon grandeur. 
Scott, Life of Swift, p. 453. 

Wordsworth ... a baldness which is full of grandeur. M» 
Arnold, Cr. Es., 2d S., ]). 159. 
Grandiloquent (XIX.) />: Put. to present. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 135 

Grandiose (XIX.) h: Hal. to present. 

Marlowe . . . coustautlj pushes graudiosily to the verge of bom- 
bast. Lowell, 0. E. D., p. 36. 
Grandity (XIX.) b: Camdeu, p. 337. 
Graphic (III.)- Jef. to present. Wilson, YI., p. 19S= 
Grasp (XIII.): Swin., Mor. Swinburne. Es. k St., p. 15. 
Grave (XIY.) : T. Wil. to present. Much in use. 

The Georgiacs are written in a . . . grave and decent style. 
TTebbe, p. 29. 
Great (XXII.) a: Haz. to present. 

The great becomes turgid in . . . Moore's . . . hands. Haz- 
LiTT, Sp. of Age, p. 325. 
• Grim (XIV.) : J. TTil. to present. 

A certain grim irony. Dowdex. Shak., p. 105. 
Grisatre : Saiutsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xliv. 
Gross (\ .) : Ascham to present. 

To bring his style from all low grossness to snch firm fastness in 
Latin as is in Demosthenes in Greek. Ascham, III., p. 206. 
GROTESQUE (IX.). 

The term " grotesque " indicates in general an almost 
total lack of proportion in the parts of a composition, 
with special reference to the pictorial char- ^g general 
acter of the mental imagery employed. Until ^^p^^po^^^- 
within the early portion of the present century, the 
" grotesque '' was considered as unnatural, inorganic, 
hideous in its disproportion. It was often associated 
with whatever was barlnirous, Gothic, or Mediaeval, but 
even after the Gothic and Mediaeval had come into favor 
in criticism, the " grotesque " still continued for at least 
half a centurv to be thoudit of as something' that lav 
wholly beyond the limits of normal, liealthful literary 
art. 

When words or images are placed in unusual juxtaposition rather 
than connection, and are so placed merely because the juxtapo- 



136 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

sition is unusual, we have the odd or the grotesque. 1810. 
Coleridge, IV., p. 276. 
The pure, which is called the classical ; the ornate, called roman- 
tic; and the grotesque, which might be called the Mediaeval. 
1864. Bagehot, Lit. St., IL, p. 352. 

During the greater portion of the present century, 
the characteristic use of the term has been to repre- 
As dispropor- sent the healthful overflow, so to speak, of 

tion of , . . . . T T . 

imagery. the imagination m literary production, as 
especially indicated in an extreme disproportion of the 
picturesque qualities of the mental imagery employed. 
The hideous now indicates the outer limits of dispro- 
portion in art, which was formerly occupied by the 
grotesque. 

The picturesque depends chiefly on the principle of discrimination 
or contrast. ... It runs imperceptibly into the fantastical and 
grotesque. 1819. Hazlitt, Table Talk, pp. 448, 449. 

Close alongside of the normal lies the sphere of the abnormal ; of 
the sane, lies the insane ; of pleasure, lies disgust ; of cohesion, 
lies dissolution; of the grotesque, lies the hideous; of the sub- 
lime, lies the ridiculous. . . . Victor Hugo, in his imaginative 
flights, is forever hovering about this dividing line, fascinated, 
spellbound by what lies beyond. Burroughs, Indoor St., 
p. 182. 

Wherever the human mind is healthy and vigorous in all its pro- 
portions, great in imagination and emotion no less than in iutel- 
lect, and not overborne by an undue or hardened pre-eminence 
of the mere reasoning faculties, there the grotesque will exist in 
full energy. ... I think that the central man of all the world 
as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral, and 
intellectual faculties, all at their highest, is Dante. 1846. 
RusKiN, St. of Venice, II., p. 206. 
Grovelling: Dry., Ad. 

Grovelling style ... of Horace. Dryden, XIII. , p. 88. 
Guarded (XIX.): Jeffrey, IL, p. 88. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 137 

Gush (XIX.) ^: Sted., Saints. Swinburne, Mis., p. 158. 
Gusto (XA^.) : Haz. to present. 

An impulsive and passionate apprehension and liter- 
ary embodiment of an image, thought, or general 
principle. 

Gusto in art is power or passion defining an object. Hazlitt, 
The Eound Table, p. 109. 

Gusto of Chaucer ... a local truth and freshness. Id., Eng. P., 
p. 36. 

Acuteness and gusto. Hunt, Wit & Humour, p. 5. 

Combination of gusto with sound theory. Saintsbuey, Es. in 
Eng. Lit., p. 158. 
Gusty: (XIX.) ^ ; Swin. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 265. 
Hackneyed (IX.) : Cole to present. 

Hackneyed and commonplace. Lowell, 0. E. ~D., p. 130. 
Halting (XVIII.) : Hazlitt, Age of El, p. 44. 
Handsome (XXII.) b : Jef. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 72. 
Happy (lY.): Camden to present. 

The turn of the poem is happy. Rymer, 2d Pt., p. 79. 
Hard (III.), cf. (XXII.) d: Ascham to present. 

I. Difficult ; not clear. 

The sense is hard and dark. Ascham, III., p. 269. 

Piers Plowman . . . hard and obscure. Puttenham, p. 76. 

II. Not productive of esthetic feeling ; ineffectual. 

All attempts that are new in this kind are dangerous and some- 
what hard, before they be softened with use. B. Jonson, 
Timber, p. 61. 

Dry, hard, and barren of effect. Hazlitt, Age of EL, p. 207. 
HARMONY (X.). 

There are two periods and three uses in the history 
of the term "harmony." Previous to the present cen- 
tury the term denoted a fixed and uniform As regular 

" . in continuations 

method oi combining sounds and oi arrant;- of sound. 



138 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

ing the metrical movements of a literary pi^oduction. 
This established harmony, it was assumed, could not 
fail to please the ear and arouse agreeable emotions 
in the mind. 

We ought to join words together in apt order tliat the ear may 

delight in hearing the harmony. T. Wilson, Rhet., pp. 175, 176. 

Poesy is a skill to speak and write harmonically. 1585. Put- 

TENHAM, p. 79. 

By the harmony of words we elevate the mind to a sense of devo- 
tion. 1669. Dryden, III., p. 377. 

To preserve an exact harmony and variety, the pause at the fourth 
or sixth . . . syllable of the verse . . . shonld not be continued 
above three lines together without the interposition of another. 
1706. Pope, YL, p. 57. 

Our poetry was not quite harmonized in Waller's time; so that 
this (On the Death of the Lord Protector), which would be now 
looked upon as a slovenly sort of versification, was, Vvdth respect 
to the times in which it was written, almost a prodigy of har- 
mony. 1767. Goldsmith, Y., p. 160. 

After about half a century of forced thoughts and rugged meter, 
some advances toward nature and harmony had been made by 
Waller and Denham. 1781. S. JoHiS^soN, YIL, pp. 307, 
308. 

During the present century, the term "harmony," 
when referring to the sounds and rhythms of a com- 
As unity and position, represents such a combination of 

variety of ^ 

sound. regularity and irregularity, of uniformity and 

variety, as shall keep expectation continually upon the 
wing, as shall conform to the anticipated combinations 
of sounds and of rliythms enough to give a certain de- 
gree of confidence to the expectation, but which shall 
disa])point the anticipation enough to keep the expecta- 
tion continually re-forming; its basis of inference. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 139 

The heroic measure of Chaucer is in general not only metrically 
correct, .but possesses considerable harmony. 1819. Camp- 
bell, I., p. 47. 

Spenser threw the soul of harmony into our verse. Id., p. 53. 

Johnson says these are remarkably inharmonious : — 

This delicious place 
Tor us too large, where thy abundance wants 
Partakers, and uncropt falls to the ground. (Par. Lost.) 

There are few so dull as to be incapable of perceiving the beauty 
of the rhythm in the last. 1826. Laxdor, IY., p. 449. 

There is many a critic who talks of harmony, and whose ear seems 
to have been fashioned out of the callus of his foot. Id., YIIL, 
p. 387. 

In Massinger, as all our poets before Dryden, in order to make 
harmonious verse in the reading, it is absolutely necessary that 
the meaning should be understood ; when the meaning is once 
seen then the harmony is perfect. Whereas in Pope ... it is 
the mechanical meter which determines the sense. (Pub.) 
1836. Coleridge, IY., p. 259. 

Occasionally, in this century, the term '' harmony " 
denotes a blending of all the parts of a composition 
into one another in such a manner as to As general 

. . adaptation in 

produce a perfect unity oi sesthetic enect. compcBition. 

Poetry ... is the result of the general harmony and completion 
... of all the faculties. 182S. Carlyle, II., p. 18. 

We have no word but the coarse and insufficient word taste to 
express that noble sense of harmony and high poetic propriety 
shown ... in these lyrics. 1S67. Swixburne, Es. & St., 
p. 141. 

Dramatic harmony. 1889. Id., A St. of B. Jonson, p. 66. 
Harsh (X.) : Harvey to present. 

I. Rouo'h and broken in sound or thouo:ht. 

The sound which I speak of as belonging to Grammar relates only 
to sweetnesses and harshnesses. Bacon, IY., p. 443. 

II. Hard ; obscure. 

Harsh and obscure. TVebbe, p. 32. 



140 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

III. Unfeeling; unsympathetic. 

The harsh direct narrativ^e of Defoe. Gosse, Eighteenth Cent. St., 
p. 385. 
Healthful (XIV.): Chan. Howells, Cr. & Eiction, p. 24. 
Hearty (Xll.) : Walton, Saints. 

Too hearty to be dissembled. Walton, Lives, p. 119. 
Heat (XV.): Lan., Swin. 

Shakespeare's sonnets are hot and pothery. Landoe., IV., p. 512. 
Heavenly (XXII.) d: Lodge to present. 

When their matter is most heavenly, their style is most lofty. 
Lodge, p. 11. 
Heavy (XVIII.) : Campion to present. 

That which produces fatigue ; the tedious, the diffi- 
cult, the over-condensed. 

I cannot agree that this exactness of detail produces heaviness; 
on the contrary, it gives an appearance of truth, Hazlitt, 
Eng. Com. Writers, p. 159. 
Milton . . . often condenses weight into heaviness. Hunt, Im- 
agination and Eancy, p. 47- 
Hectic (XV.) : The water blushed into wine. (Crashaw.) 

This is in his usual hectic manner. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, 
p. 69. 
Heightened (VIII.) : Heightened and elaborate air. M. Arnold, 

Cel. Lit., etc., p. 288. 
Heroic (XI.) : Put. to present. 

Kinds of poetry, — heroic, scommatic, pastoral. Hobbes, IV., 

p. 444. 
The personages to speak not as men but as heroes. Scott, Ed. 
of Dryden, II., p. 318. 
Hideous (XXII.) d : Hideous and ludicrous conceits. Gosse, Life 

of Congreve, p. 155. 
High (XL) : Put. to present. 

High and stately. Puttenham, p. 164. 

Erom style really high and pure, Milton never departs. M. 
Arnold, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 62. 
High-colored (V.) : Jef. to present. 

High-colored and apparently exaggerated. Jeffrey, L, p. 370. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 141 

High-toned : Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 79. 
Historic (VIII.) : Camp, to present. 

I. In theory, history, representing past events and 
past attainments, is thought to furnish a basis for the 
poetic activity to which, also, in a measure, it pre- 
scribes limits. 

In au historian ... I do not want frequent interspersions of sen- 
timent. MiLTOx, III., p. 515. 

Eor as truth is the bound of historical, so the resemblance of truth 
is the utmost limit of poetical liberty. Hobbes, IV., pp. 451, 
452. 

The historian, to be worthy the name, must occasionally exercise 
the poet's office. Waller, IL, p. 448. 

Truth to nature can be reached ideally, never historically. Low 
ELL, Prose, II., p. 128. 

II. The " historic," in its immediate critical signifi- 
cance, is thought to be prosaic and tedious. 

Norman verse dwelt for a considerable time in the tedious historic 
style. Campbell, I., p. 14. 
Histrionic (VIII.) : False and histrionic. Swinburne, Es. & St., 

p. 249. 
Hobbling (XVIII.) : Mil., Dry. 

Carmen hexametrum doth rather trot and hobble than run smoothly 
in our English tongue. Ascham, III., p. 251. 
Hollow : J. Wil. to present. 

Ealse and hollow. Wilson, VII. , p. 3] 4. 
Home-bred (VII.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 49. 
Homely (V.) : Put. to present. 

The extreme homehness ... of Defoe's style. Lamb, Mrs. 
Leicester, p. 305. 
Home-spun : Swin. to present. 

Home-spun style of Locke. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 96. 
Homogeneous (XIII.) a : Lowell, Prose, IV., p. 162. 



142 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 
HONEST (VII.): T. Wil. to present. 

I. In early criticism, the term signified that which 
was not affected or over-strained; moderation and nat- 
urahiess of statement. 

That is called an honest matter when either we take in hand snch 
a cause that all men would maintain, or else gainsay such a 
cause that no man can well like. T. Wilson, Rhet., p. 8. 

The honesty and simplicity of the first beginners in tragedy. 
E.YMER, 2d Pt., p. 11. 

The venustum, the honestum, the decorum of things will force its 
way. SHArTESBUUY, I., p. 108. 

II. Later, the term has signified that which is nei- 
ther affected nor conventional, — the spontaneous and 
natural in composition. 

Spontaneous and honest. Lowell^ Lat. Lit. Es., p. 3. 
Simple, natural, and honest. Howells, Cr. & Fiction. 
Horrible (XXII.) d : Swin., Es. & St., p. 14- 
Horrid (XXII.) b : Gosse, Life of Coiigreve, p. 84. 
Horse-play (Y.) : Hunt to present. Hunt, Wit & Humour, p. 2. 
Human (XIV.): Whip, to present. 

Elizabethan literature . . . was intensely human. Whipple, El. 

Lit., p. 5. 
I call this a good human bit of writ Id g . . . not so high-faluting 
... as the modern style, since poets have got hold of a theory 
that imagination is common sense turned inside out. Lowell, 
III., p. 270. 
Motives broadly human . . . such as one and all may realize. 
Pater, Ap., p. 241. 
Humanism: The faded liumanism of the taste of the day. GossE, 

Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 97. 
Humble : Put. to present. 

In a style that expressed such a grave and so humble a majesty. 

Walton, Lives, p. 184. 
The proper place of comparisons h'es in the middle region between 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 143 

tlie liiglily pathetic and tlie very liiimble style. Blair, Khet., 

p. 184. 
Humdrum : Jog-trot and humdrum, so not powerful. M. Arnold, 

Celtic Lit., etc., p. 183. 
HUMOR (XYII.). 

The word '4iumor " as employed in criticism denoted 
at first — in accordance with the physiological knowl- 
edge of the times — a supposed fluid or moisture of the 
body, which was erratic and ungovernable in its method 
of activity. ''Humor" has come to mean an active, 
impulsive play of sympathy between the ideal and the 
actual conditions of human life. In such an extended 
change of meaning as this, it is evident that almost 
an infinite number of intermediate distinctions could 
be drawn. But in all such distinctions there is a com- 
mon element of critical significance in the term, in 
that it designates a principle of variation in literature, 
progressive or revolutionary tendencies, which are 
brought about by an apparently involuntary play of 
the fancy upon the incongruities of actual life, accom- 
panied, perhaps, by a spirit of sympathetic feeling. 
The changes of meaning in the term have resulted 
chiefly from the different incentives which have pro- 
duced this variation and play of the fancy. 

Pour general stages of development of meaning mav 
be distinguished in the history of the term. 

Until the eighteenth century, the physiological origin 
of the term occasionally controlled its critical meaning. 
The humors of the bodv were blind and aim- . 

^ As an erratic 

less. They were themselves the source of ^><>^iy ^"^o^- 
oddities and inconorruities rather than the means of 



144 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

reacting upon oddities and incongruities in others. 
Hence they furnished material for literary representa- 
tion, but in the author himself they were considered 
as merely a disturbing influence in the organizing of 
this material. 

Poetry in the primogeniture had many peccant humours, and is 
made to have more now, through the levity and inconstancy of 
men's judgments. (Pub.) 1641. B. Jonson, Timber, p. 72. 

A play ... is ... a just and lively image of human nature, rep- 
resenting its passions and humours, and the changes of fortune 
to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind. 
1668. Dkyden, XV., p. 292. 

What force of wit and spirit in the style, what lively painting of 
humour, some fancy they discern there, I will not examine nor 
dispute. 1699. Bentley, II. , p. 78. 

Coi-rect the redundancy of Immours, and cliasten the exuberance 
of conceit and fancy. Shaetesbiihy, L, p. 131. 

All the varieties and turns of humour. . . . Yet the simple imita- 
tion of nature . . . through petulancy or debauch of bumour 
. . . was set aside. Id., p. 193. 

From the middle of the seventeenth century until 
the latter portion of the eighteenth century, " humor *' 
As the usually indicated the pleasantly ridiculous, 

agreeably 

ridiculous. the merely laughable, the comical. But for 
the representation of these things, the author, it was 
now recognized, must himself be possessed of a sense 
of what was humorous, and it was this humorous sense 
in the author which determined the nature of the hu- 
mor in the literary production. This humor was closely 
allied to wit. It consisted in general of a sudden feel- 
ing of contrast between the ordinary routine of life and 
some extravagant incident or incongruity, which was 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 145 

usually supposed to be found or to have taken place 
among the lower classes of society. The contrast, how- 
ever, remained a contrast, and was not taken up into 
the unifying influence of sympathetic feeling. The 
purpose of the humor did not extend beyond the pleas- 
ant excitation of the moment. 

Genesis of Immor from the ancients. (Snmmary) : — 

1 . At first an odd conceit, not imitation. 

2. Then containing only the general characters of men and 

manners, i. e., types; e. g. old men, lovers, courtezans, 
etc. 

3. Among English, some extravagant habit, passion, or affec- 

tation . . . distinguishing its possessor from the rest of 
men. 1668. Dhyden, XY., p. 350. 

Jonson's comedy, ^'neither all wit or all humour, but the result of 
both." 1671. Id., III., p. 214. 

Jonson was the only man of all ages and nations w4io has per- 
formed it (humor) well. ... To make men appear pleasantly 
ridiculous on the stage . . . was his talent. Id., p. 211. 

There is in Othello some burlesque, some liumour, and ramble of 
comical wit. Rymer, 2d Pt., p. 116. 

Eew passages in Horace are more full of humour than this ludi- 
crous punishment of the poor creditor. 1756. J. Wahtox, 
IL, p. 215. 

As humor in writing chiefly consists in an imitation of the foibles 
or absurdities of mankind, so our pleasure in this species of 
composition arises from comparing the picture in description 
with the original in nature. In the works of our own country- 
men we have frequent opportunities of making this comparison, 
as the originals are generally before us ; but when we read the 
productions of foreigners, as their portraits are copied from 
manners with which we are not sufficiently acquainted, so they 
must often appear forced and unnatural. 1757- Goldsmith, 
lY., p. 283. 

During the eighteenth century "humor" was very 
often regarded as a form of the comical, in which the 

10 



146 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

poignancy resulted, not from the extravagant violation 
As the of social customs in general, but from any 

ludicrous. deviation whatever from good taste and cul- 
tivated feeling. " Humor " thus considered was more 
diffused and genial than in the preceding use of the 
term. It was thought of as a characteristic of the 
author's mind, an active influence in producing litera- 
ture. It represented a conservative form of sympathy, 
a sympathy which included certain imperfect conditions 
only in order that these conditions might be corrected 
and improved in conformity with other conditions 
already well established. This form of " humor " was 
associated with wit and satire, not with pathos. 

A man of urbanitas will be one from wliom many good sayings and 
repartees sliall have proceeded, and wlio, in common conversa- 
tion, at meetings, at entertainments, in assemblies of tlie people, 
and, in short, • every where speaks with hnmor and propriety. 
, QUINTILIAN, YI., p. 455. 

A taste for humour is in some manner fixed to the very nature of 
man, and generally obvious to the vulgar, except upon subjects 
'too refined, and superior to their understanding. Swift, IX., 
p. 88. 

It is not an imagination that teems with monsters, an head that is 
filled with extravagant conceptions, which is capable of furnish- 
ing the world with diversions of humour. 1710. Addison, 
II., p. 297. 

Genuine humour, the concomitant of true taste, consists in discern- 
ing improprieties in books as well as characters. 1778. T. 
Wauton, Hist. E. P., p. 286. 

Wit and humour are ever found in proportion to the progress of 
refinement. 1778. Id., p. 684. 

Addison's humour is so happily diffused as to give the grace of 
novelty to domestic scenes and daily occurrences. 1781. S. 
Johnson, VII., p. 472. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 147 

In fact Hawthorne was able to tread in that magic circle only by 
an exquisite refinement of taste, and by a delicate sense of hu- 
mour, which is the best preservative against all extravagance. 
1874. Stephen^, Hrs. in a Lib., I., p. 295. 

During the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
humor came to be regarded as a characteristic of 
genius, an instinct which acted " without ^^ ^^^ ^ 
design," as it were, unconsciously. In the le^fitthe 
beginning of the present century, humor was ^^^®^^^^®^^- 
distinguished from wit, — humor being the more un- 
conscious and sympathetic, wit the more conscious 
and intellectual. Throughout the present century, the 
term '' humor," with few exceptions, has represented 
the sense of the incongruous, which arises, when the 
actual is viewed in the light of ideals, which are as 
broad and comprehensive as human life itself. Hu- 
mor thus relates to common human interests and 
ideals, is buoyant and filled with a sense of growth 
and development. Humor reaches out continually and 
brings into its sympathetic unity new material for lit- 
erature. Though one of the most progressive of liter- 
ary tendencies, the intimate relation of humor to pathos 
keeps it distinct from the merely incongruous, the dis- 
proportioned, the grotesque. 

Such, then, being demonstrably the possibility of blending or fus- 
ing, as it were, the elements of pathos and Imraour, and com- 
posing out of their union a third metal, I cannot bnt consider 
John Paul Richter as by far the most eminent artist in that way 
since the time of Shakespeare. 1821. De Quixcey, XI., 
p. 264. 

Whilst wit is a purely intellectual thing, into every act of the lui- 
monrous mood there is an influx of the moral nature. Id., 
p. 270. 



148 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The essence of humour is sensibility ; warm, tender fellow-feeling 
with all forms of existence. Nay, we may say that unless sea- 
soned and purified by humour, sensibility is apt to run wild; 
will readily corrupt into disease, falsehood, or, in one word, sen- 
timentality. 1827. Carlyle, I., p. 14. 
Humour is properly the exponent of low things ; that which first 
renders them poetical to the mind. The man of humour sees 
common life, even mean life, under the new light of sportfulness 
and love. 1828. Id., III., p. 97. 
Humor properly took its rise in the Middle Ages ; and the Devil, 
the Yice of the mysteries, incorporates the modern humor in its 
elements. It is a spirit measured by disproportionate finites. 
(Pub.) 1836. Coleridge, IV., p. 279. 
Humor in its first analysis is a perception of the incongruous, and, 
in its highest development, of the incongruity between the 
actual and the ideal in men and life. 1866. Lowell, II., 
p. 97. 
Nothing but the highest artistic sense can prevent humor from 

degenerating into the grotesque. 1866. Id., p. 90. 
Your historian, for instance, with absolutely truthful intention, . . . 
must needs select, and in selecting assert something of his own 
humour, something that comes not of tlie world without, but of 
a vision within. 1888. Pater, Ap., p. 5. 
Humor is the overflow of genius. 1892. Stedman, Nat. & El. 
of Poetry, p. 215. 
Hurtling (X.) : Clang of hurtling rhymes. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 43. 
Hybrid (Vll.) : Hybrid and bastard rhymes. Swinburne. 
Hyperbolical (YIII.) : Put. to present. 

Hyperboles suit with the temperament of the young, for they 

evince a vehemence of temper. Aristotle, Hhet., p. 245. 
Hyperbole, the over-reacher or loud liar. Puttenham, p. 200. 
Eigurative expressions, or hyperbolical allusions. Hazlitt, Age 
of EL, p. 56. 
Hysterical (XY.) : Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., p. 227- 
Idea : Jef. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 165. 
IDEAL (XXIIL). 

The term has been employed chiefly in theory as an 
opposing expression to the real. It usually refers di- 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 149 

rectly to the author himself rather than to his literary 
work. The " ideal " represents the result as enhance- 

. . ...,.,. ment or 

of the imaginative activity in heightening heightening, 
or transforming facts or historical truth into literary 
material and literary forms of expression. Two stages 
may perhaps be distinguished in this imaginative sub- 
limation of the real or actual. (See Imagination and 
Reality.) Usually the "ideal" indicates an improve- 
ment or elevation of the common and well-known fact, 
a deeper conception of its meaning ; the transformation 
of it as a fixed entity into a moving principle, accompa- 
nied, perhaps, by strong feeling and passion. 

Entertains in his imagination an ideal beauty, conceived and culti- 
vated as an improvement upon nature. Goldsmith, I., p. 338. 

Milton has no idealism . . . Wordswortli has. Wilso:^, Y., 
p. 395. 

Truth to nature can be reached ideally, never historically. Low- 
ell, Prose, XL, p. 128. 

A figure may be ideal and yet accurate. Swinburne, Es. & St., 
p. 220. 

Every workman must be a realist in knowledge, and an idealist for 
interpretation. Stedman, Nat. of Poetry, p. 199. 

Occasionally the " ideal " possesses no direct resem- 
blance to any definite fact or historical truth. It is to 

be defined merely as that which is in accord As impas- 
sioned inven- 
with the sense of harmony and beauty in tion. 

the mind. 

The ideal is that which answers to the preconceived and appetite 
in the mind for love and beauty. Hazlitt, Table Talk, p. 448. 

His idealism does not consist in conferring grandeur upon vulgar 
objects by tinging them with the reflection of deep emotion. 
Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., I., p. 280. 



150 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Idiomatic (I.) : Harvey to present. 

The vernacular; a diction, common, well known, con- 
versational. Not held in much favor by the critics 
until wdthin the eighteenth century. 

E.ules for avoiding the idiomatic style and attaining tlie sublime, — 

use of metaphors, etc. Addison, III., pp. 191, 192. 
Milton formed his style by a perverse and pedantic principle ; he 
was desirous to use English words with a foreign idiom. S. 
Johnson, YII., p. 140. 
Spenser's language is less pure and idiomatic than Chaucer's. 

Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, p. 56. 
They wrote idiomatically, because they wrote naturally and with- 
out affectation. De Quince y, X., p. 126. 
Idiosyncrasy : Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxiv. 
IdyUic (XXL) : Swin. to present. 

An idyllic or picturesque mode. Stedman, Yic. Poets, p. 187- 
Idyllic flavor. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 299. 
Ignoble (XIY.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, L, p. 391. 
lU-constructed : Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 9. 
Ill-digested: Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 181. 
Ill-placed (IV.): Dry., J. War. 

A synchesis or ill-placiug of words. Dryden, IY., p. 231. 
IMAGINATION (XXIIL). 

Five periods may be distinguished in the history of 
the term " imagination." During the first period, which 
As the source ^^^ends to the middle of tlie seventeenth cen- 
aid pJeticli t^O'? " imagination " was not an active criti- 
cal term in applied criticism, thougli in theory 
it was thought to be a sufficient explanation for the 
origin of poetry. Imagination was a more or less 
independent mental activity, set over in sharp relief 
against the reason, and having to do with "ideas" or 
images, which could in no sense be derived from past 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 151 

experience, which in fact had far less reference even 
to the present than to future experience. Imagina- 
tion was regarded from the standpoint of its effect. 
It was the means by which poetical and religious con- 
ceptions could be attained and appreciated. These the 
poet and critic found existing in society as potent in- 
fluences in actual conduct. The mental activity by 
which these conceptions were rendered possible was 
left almost wholly undefined. 

Art transcends nature ... by means of the idea or fore-conceit of 
the work. . . . And that the poet hath that idea is manifest by 
delivering them forth in such excellency as he hath imagined 
them. Which delivering forth also is not wholly imaginative, 
as we are wont to say by them that build castles in the air; 
but so far substantially it worketh, not only to make a Cyrus 
which had been, but a particular excellency, as Nature might 
have done, but to bestow a Cyrus upon the world, to make many 
Cyrus's if they wiU learn aright why and how that Maker made 
him. 1583. Sidney, p. 8. 

God, without any travail to his divine imagination, made all the 
world of nought, nor also by any patern or mould as the Pla- 
tonics with their ''Ideas'' do fantastically suppose. Even so 
the very poet makes and contrives out of his own brain both the 
verse and matter of his poem, and not by any foreign copy or 
example, as doth the translator, who therefore may well be said 
a yersifier but not a poet. 1585. Puttenham, p. 19. 

The poet . . . rests only in deyice, and issues from an excellent 
sharp and quick invention, holpen by a clear and bright phantasy 
and imagination. Id., pp. 312, 318. 

Imagination bringing bravely dight 
Her pleasing images in best array. 

1603. Daxiel. I., p. 238. 

The best division of human learning is that derived from the three 
faculties of the rational soul, which is the seat of learning. His- 
tory has reference to the memory, poesy to the imagination, and 



152 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

pliilosophy to the reason. And by poesy here I mean nothing 
else than feigned history or fables ; for verse is but a character 
of style, and belongs to the arts of speech. Bacon, IY., p. 292. 

Reason, when it has made its judgment and selection, sends them 
over to the imagination before the decree be put in execution. 
Eor voluntary motion is ever preceded and incited by imagina- 
tion. . . . So . . . this Janus of Imagination has two diiferent 
faces; for the face towards reason has the print of truth, and 
the face toward action has the print of goodness. . . . But it is 
not simply a messenger ... it usurps no small authority in 
itself, e. g., in matters of faith it is above reason. Bacon, IY., 
p. 406. 

In a fable, if the action be too great, we can never comprehend 
the whole together in our imagination. 1641. B. Jonson, 
Timber, p. 84. 

The second period extends to the middle of the 
eighteenth century. Imagination was considered as 
As an imag- ^^ imaging process, but the image received 
ing process. £^^, more attention than the process. The 
image was thought to be the means by w^hich the ''imi- 
tation of nature " could take place. The image might 
be an exact reproduction of some portion of past expe- 
rience, or it might be composed of sucli a recombina- 
tion of the elements of experience, as by conforming 
more nearly to the sense of beauty than the actuality 
gave greater immediate pleasure. This immediate 
pleasure was the only result of the imaginative pro- 
cess. The imagination was unrelated to action, and 
hence did not arouse the feelings and passions. ^ It 
opposed the integrity of the senses, and rendered im- 
possible accuracy of knowledge; it was lawless, and 
tended toward over-exuberance, conceit, and mere or- 
nament. Imagination was, indeed, in a sense, the life of 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 153 

poetry, but the form in which this life revealed itself 
was determined almost wholly by the judgment. Im- 
agination might furnish the poetical incentive, but judg- 
ment was the artist that gave it expression. 

Tor after the object is removed, or the eve shut, we still retain an 
image of the thmg seen, though more obscure than when we saw 
it. And this is it the Latins call imagination, from the image 
made in seeing. . . . Imagination, therefore, is nothing but de- 
caying sense. . . . This decaying sense, when we would express 
the thing itself, ... we call imagination ; but when we would 
express the decay ... it is called memory. Hobbes, III., 
pp. 4-6. 

For imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless that, like 
an high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it out- 
run the judgment. 1664. DuTDEX, II., p. 138. 

Wit ... is the faculty of imagination in the writer, which, like a 
nimble spaniel, beats over and ranges through the field of mem- 
ory, till it springs the quarry it hunted after. 1666. Id., IX., 
pp. 95, 96. 

He affects plainness to cover his want of imagination. 1668. Id., 
XY., p. 288. 

An heroic poet is not tied to a bare representation of what is true 
or exceeding probable ; but that he may let himself loose to 
visionary objects, and to the representation of such things, as 
depending not on sense, and therefore not to be compreliended 
by knowledge, may give him a freer scope for imagination. 
1669. Id., lY., p.'23. 

Imaging is in itself the very height and life of poetry. 1674. 
Id., Y., p. 120. 

The dream I am now going to relate is as wild as can well be im- 
agined, and adapted to please these refiners upon sleep, without 
any moral that I can discover. Swift, IX., p. 56. 

To make brick without straw or stubble is perhaps an easier labour 
than to prove morals without a world, and establish a conduct 
of life without the supposition of anything living or extant be- 
sides our immediate fancy and world of imagination. Shaftes- 
bury, III., p. 147. 



154 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Pleasures of the imagination of two kinds : — 

I. Primary, which proceed entirely from such objects as are 
before our eyes. 

II. Secondary, The objects are called up in our memories, or 
formed into agreeable visions of things that are either ab- 
sent or fictitious. 1712. Addison, III., p. 394. 

Imagination from actual view of objects arises from the sight of 
what is : — 
I. Great, — e.g. the desert or ocean, — a single view. 

II. Uncommon, — ''Pills the soul with an agreeable surprise." 

III. Beautiful, — Most direct appeal to the soul. 

1712. Id., III., p. 397. 

The understanding opens an infinite space on every side of us, but 
the imagination, after a few faint efforts, is immediately at a 
stand, and finds herself swallowed up in the immensity of the 
void that surrounds it. Id., Ill,, p. 427- 

When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagina- 
tion. 1742. D. Hume, L, p. 242. 

The iorce of imagination, the energy of expression, the power of 
numbers, the charms of imitation : all these are naturally of 
themselves delightful to the mind. Id., pp. 263, 264. 

One obvious cause why many feel not the proper sentiment of 
beauty, is the want of that delicacy of imagination which is 
requisite to convey a sensibility of those finer emotions. Id. 
L, p. 272. 

The last half of tlie eighteenth century was a period 
of transition. The imagination was a vivid imaging 
As a vivid process, — a process so intense and vivid that 

imaging 

process. it seemed to represent a reality, thus arous- 

ing the passions and forming, as it were, a world of 
beauty of its own. This was the world of poetry, which 
faded away before the advance of science and learning. 
(See '' Poetical.") Imagination was thus in a sense op- 
])Osed to the reason, but this opposition was viewed 
from the historical stand])oint rather than from the 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 155 

psychological. It was usually far off, remote from 
ordinary life that the imagination painted its pictures, 
and produced the temporary poetical illusion. This 
illusion, however, was a mere illusion, it did not react 
upon conduct ; it served only as a means of produc- 
ing immediate pleasure. 

Poetry cannot dwell upon the minuter distinctions by wliich one 
species differs from another, without departing from that sim- 
plicity of grandeur which fills the imagination. 1750. S. 
Johnson, II., p. 178. 

We can always feel more than we can imagine, and the most artful 
fiction must give way to truth. 1753. Id., IY., p. 79. 

It is a creative and glowing imagination, and that alone, that can 
stamp a writer with this exalted and very uncommon character, 
which so few possess, and of which so few can properly judge. 
1756. J. Warton, I., p. ii. 

Such circumstances as are best adapted to strike the imagination 
by lively pictures . . . the selection of which chiefly constitutes 
true poetry. Id., p. 26. 

Pope's close and constant reasoning had impaired and crushed the 
faculty of imagination. Id., p. 276. 

If the imagination be lively the passions will be strong. Id., 
p. 102. 

Ignorance and superstition, so opposite to the real interests of hu- 
man society, are the parents of imagination. 1778. T. War- 
ton, H. E.^P., p. 626. 

The poet has a world of his own, where experience has less to do 
than consistent imagination. 1762. Hurd, IV., p. 321?. 

And as art is merely a pleasure of the imagination, it is much 
higher than any that is derived from a rectitude of the judgment ; 
the judgment is for the greater part employed in throwing 
stumbling-blocks in the way of the imagination, in dissipating 
the scenes of its enchantment, and in tying us down to the disa- 
greeable yoke of our reason. 1756. Burke, I., p. 65. 

The imagination is the most extended province of pleasure and 
pain, as it is the region of our fears and our hopes, and of all 
our passions that are connected with them. Id., p. 58. 



156 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Waller borrows too many of his sentiments and illustrations from 
the old mythology, for which it is vain to plead the example of 
ancient poets ; the deities which they introduced so frequently 
were considered as realities so far as to be received by the im- 
agination, w^iatever sober reason might even then determine. 
1781. S. Johnson, YIL, p. 216. 

During the early portion of the present century, the 
imagination was considered as an ideal-making pro- 
As an ideal- cess, producing ideals which were not a mere 

ized artistic 

process. means for creating a poetical illusion, but 

were a constant and normal influence in all conduct, 
which therefore excited the passions, and which to a 
greater or less extent controlled even perception. As a 
mental process, the imagination represented a fusion or 
unification of the powers of the mind, a blending of all 
the mental capacities in the intuition or reconstruction 
of an ideal. As in the case of genius the intense unifi- 
cation of the mental powers produced results which could 
only be apprehended as results, and thus the imagination 
was said to be ''unconscious," to disclose "hidden anal- 
ogies," to be an instinct, a revelation, to work like nature 
itself. The imagination also gave the artistic sense of 
power and movement, — movement which carried to an 
undue extent resulted in the fantastic and the grotesque. 
The imagination, considered as a mere picturing process, 
was now called the passive imagination, in contradistinc- 
tion to the active imagination, which transformed these 
pictures into living things, thus giving the basis for sym- 
pathy, which identified beauty with truth, — at least 
with future truth, (see "Truth"), — and which furnished a 
means for the mental representation not only of feel- 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 157 

ings and passions, which point toward the future, or of 
action historically considered, but also of passion grow- 
ing into action and of action resolving itself into pas- 
sion. Imagination thus gave a unihed view of life ; 
still it was confined to poetry, and was not usually sup- 
posed to assist in its own verbal expression. 

The primary imagination I hold to be the living power and prime 
agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the finite 
mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite '' I Am/' The 
secondary is an echo of the former, identical in kind, but differ- 
ing in degree, and in the mode of its operation. It dissolves, 
diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate. 1S17. Colehidge, 
III., p. 363. 

The poet described in ideal perfection brings the whole soul of 
man into activity with the subordination of its faculties to each 
other according to their relative worth and dignity. He diffuses 
a tone and spirit of unity that blends, and, as it were, fuses each 
into each, by that synthetical and magical power to which I 
would exclusively appropriate the name of imagination. 1817. 
Id., p. 374. 

Imagination seems insufficient of itself to produce diction always 
vivid and poetical, without the aid of human passion and worldly 
observation. 1815. Wilsox, V., p. 395. 

AVhat the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth, whether it 
existed before or not. . . . The imagination may be compared 
to xldam's dream; he awoke and found it truth. 1S17. Keats, 
Letters, pp. 41, 42. 

This intuitive perception of the hidden analogies of things, or, as 
it may be called, this instinct of the imagination, is, perhaps, 
what stamps the character of genius on the productions of art 
more than any other circumstance : for it works unconsciously 
like nature, and receives its impressions from a kind of inspira- 
tion. 1819. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 117. 

We want the creative faculty to imagine that which we know ; we 
want the generous impulse to act that which we imagine. 1821. 
Shelley, YII., p. 135. 



158 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

A man to be greatly good must imagine intensely and comprehen- 
sively, ... go out of ins own nature and identify himself with 
beauty not his own. 1821. Id., p. 111. 

Among the writers of luxuriant and florid prose, however rich and 
fanciful, there never was one who w^rote good poetry. Imagi- 
nation seems to start back when they would lead her into a nar- 
rower walk ; and to forsake them at the first prelude of the lyre. 
1824. Landor, II., p. 186. 

They do not create, which implies shaping and consistency. Their 
imaginations are not active, — for to be active is to call some- 
thing into act and form, — but passive, as men in sick dreams. 
1826. Lamb, Elia, p. 252. 

A true work of art requires to be fused in the mind of its creator, 
and, as it were, poured forth (from his imagination, though not 
from his pen) at one simultaneous gush. 1827- Carlyle, I., 
p. 18. 

Poets have penetrated into the mystery of nature . . . and thus 
can the spirit of our age, embodied in fair imagination, look forth 
on us. 1827. Id., p. 56. 

It is well known that we create nine-teuths at least of what a})- 
pears to exist externally; and such is somewhere about the pro- 
portion between reality and imagination. 1832. Wilson, VI., 
p. 109. 

In this way has imagination at all times blended itself with the 
passion of sorrow. The strong feeling in which the mind begins 
to work is the wound of its own loss. Id., VIII., p. 265. 

Imagination . . . purely so called is all feeling : the feeling of the 
subtlest and most affecting analogies ; the perception of sympa- 
thies in the nature of things or in their popular attributes. 
1844. Hunt, Im. & Fancy, p. 26. 

That magnificent condition of fantastic imagination which ... is 
one of the chief elements of the Northern Gothic mind. 1816. 
RusKiN, St. of Venice, p. 154. 

During the latter portion of the present century, 
imagination has usually been considered as an artis- 
As an artis- ^^^ process, which Is in close relation with 
tic process, ^j^^ intellectual powers of the mind. It 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 169 

not only gives unity to the mental conception of the 
literary work, but it aids also in expressing this gen- 
eral conception in definite images and in words. It is 
guarded from excesses by an inherent sense of " form," 
without which it ceases to be imagination. Imagina- 
tion gives body, as it were, to the reason, and reason 
gives the general outlines to the imaginative process. 
The two processes are indispensable to each other. 
Hence the imagination finds literary expression in 
prose as well as in poetry. During nearly all the 
present century, '' imagination " has been employed to 
explain the origin of literature, even as " imitation " 
had previously been employed. The distinctions be- 
tween the two views, however, belong to theoretical 
rather than to applied criticism. As an active critical 
term, '' imagination " has not been so much in use 
during the latter portion of the century as it was dur- 
ing the earlier portion. 

The feat of the imagination is in sliowing the convertibilitY of 
every thing into every other thing. Eacts which had never 
before left their stark common sense suddenly figure as Eleu- 
sinian mysteries. 1S60. Emerson, Conduct of Life, p. 289. 

But the main element of the modern spirit's life is neither the 
senses and understanding, nor the heart and imagination ; it is 
the imaginative reason. And there is a century in Greek life, 
the century preceding the Peloponnesian war, ... in which 
poetry made, it seems to me, the noblest, the most successful 
effort she has ever made as the priestess of the imaginative 
reason. 1865. M. Arnold, Cr. Es. 1st S., pp. 220, 221. 

Wordsworth was wholly void of that shaping imagination which is 
the highest criterion of a poet. 1866. Lowell, II., p. 78. 

In poets,. this liability to be possessed by the creations of their own 
brains is limited and proportioned by the artistic sense, and the 



160 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERJilS. 

imagiuatiou thus truly becomes the shaping faculty, while in less 
regulated or coarser organizations it dwells forever in the Nifei- 
heim of phantasmagoria and dream. 1868. Id., p. 321. 

Lamb . . . had more sympathy with imagination where it gathers 
into the intense focus of passionate phrase, than with that higher 
form of it, where it is the faculty that shapes, gives unity of 
design, and balanced gravitation of parts. 1868. Id., III., 
p. 30. 

Imagination has . . . its seat in the higher reason, and it is effi- 
cient only as the servant of the will. Id., p. 31. 

In that secondary office of imagination, where it serves the artist, 
not as the reason that shapes, but as the interpreter of his con- 
ceptions into words, there is a distinction to be noticed between 
the higher and lower mode in which it performs its function. It 
may be either creative or pictorial, may body forth the thought 
or merely image it forth. With Shakesjjeare, for example, im- 
agination seems imminent in his very consciousness ; with Milton 
in his memory. 1868. Id., p. 40. 

There is an essential difference between imaginative production in 
verse, and imaginative production in prose, that will not permit 
both to be called by the common name of poetry. M. Arnold, 
Mixed Essays, p. 135. 

A vigorous grasp of realities is rather a proof of a powerful than a 
defective imagination. 1871. Stephe:n^, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 283. 

To identify in prose what we call poetry, the imaginative power. 
1888. Pater, Ap., p. 2. 

Til ere is an imagination of the intellect, and its utterance is of a 
very high order, — often the prophecy of inspiration itself. 
1892. Stedman, Nature of Poetry, p. 211. 
IMITATION (XXIII. ). 

Early in ancient criticism, poetry ^as defined as a 
result of the tendency in the mind to imitate, to repro- 
duce or represent human life and human achievement, 
and this definition exerted a strong influence upon the 
methods of English criticism until the middle of the 
present century. In Latin criticism '^ imitation" was 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 161 

usually employed to designate either a copying among 
authors, or oratorical mimicry, — the forensic portrayal 
of human manners and character. The oratorical sig- 
nificance of " imitation " is scarcely to be found in 
English criticism. The term has uniformly indicated 
either the representation of nature, life, or experience, 
or the copying among authors. 

As signifying the reproduction of experience in lit- 
erary form four general stages may perhaps be distin- 
guished in the history of the term. Until ^grepresenta- 
the middle of the seventeenth century, " imi- 
tation" was usually thought to be a sufficient explana- 
tion for all poetry. But that which was to be imitated 
transcended any ordinary conception of nature, life, or 
experience. What was imitated was really ideals, often 
abstract, rigid, and conventional in their nature, and 
this could be accomplished only by means of imagina- 
tion and suggestion. 

Poetry is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle terrneth it in his 
word, . . . that is to say, a representing, a counterfeiting, or 
figuring forth . . . three kinds : 

I. Imitate the inconceivable excellencies of God. 
II. Imitate matters philosophical. 

III. Imitate wliat shall be and should be to teach and delight. 

1583. Sidney, p. 9. 
To imitate, borrow nothing of what is, hath been, or shall be ; but 
range . . . into the divine consideration of what may be and 
should be. Id., p. 10. 
Poesy is an art not only of making but also of imitation. ... A 
poet may in some sort be said a follower or imitator, because he 
can express the true and lively of everything is set before him. 

1585. PUTTENHAM, p. 20. 

Whatsoever a man speaks or persuades, he doth it not by imitation 
11 



162 A 'HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

artificially, but by obseiTatioii naturally (thougli one follow an- 
other), because it is both the same and the like that nature doth 
suggest; but if a popinjay speaks slie doth it by imitation of 
man's voice artificially and not naturally . . . but not the same 
that nature doth suggest to man. Id., p. 312. 

The second' period extends until the middle of the 
eighteenth century. Characters and sentiments as 
As represen- manifested in action constituted the chief 

tation of j, . . . . . . , 

character. subject-matter 01 imitation. As in ancient 
criticism, experience was considered historically, not 
ideally. Imitation, however, was not usually thought 
to be a complete explanation for poetry, nor did the 
mental process, by means of which imitation takes place, 
receive attention. 

The poet is a "maker" by reason of his being an imitator, and 
what he imitates is action. Aristotle, Poetics, p. 31. 

A play is still an imitation of nature ; we know we are to be de- 
ceived, and we desire to be so ; but no man ever was deceived 
but with a probability of truth. 1668. Dryden, XV., p. 120. 

All that is dull, insipid, languishing, and without sinews in a poem 
is called an imitation of nature . . . and lively images and elo- 
cution are never to be forgiven. 1671^. Id., V., p. 120. 

To imitate well is a poet's work ; but to affect the soul, and excite 
the passions, and above all to move admiration ... a bare imi- 
tation will not serve. 1667. Id., II., p. 384. 

I shall quote several passages (of Chevy-Chase) in which the 
thought is altogether the same with what we meet in several 
passages of the ^neid ; not that I would infer from thence 
that the poet (whoever he was) proposed to himself any imita- 
tion of those passages, but that he was directed to them in 
general by the same kind of poetical genius and by the same 
copyings after nature. 1710. Addison, II., p. 384. 

The last half of the eighteenth century was a period 
of transition. The phrase '^ imitation of nature" came 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 163 

to represent both originality and invention, and thus 
again " imitation " was regarded as a full explanation 
for poetry. The mental process of '^ imita- Asrepresen- 

^ " ^ tanon of 

tion,'' however, was not directly defined. "nature." 

This primary or original copying, which in the ideas of philosophy 
is Imitation, is, in the language of criticism, called Invention. 
1751. HUED, II, p. 111. 

Kothing is an imitation further than as it resembles some qther 
thing ; and words, undoubtedly, have no sort of resemblance to 
the ideas for which they stand. . . . Poetry is an imitation only 
in so far as it describes the manners and passions of men wliich 
their words can express. 1756. Burke, L, p. 178. 

I will not presume to say . . . descriptive poetry ... is equal 
either in dignity or utiUty to those compositions that lay open 
the internal constitution of man, and that imitate characters, 
manners, and sentiments. 1756. J. Wartox, I., p. 19. 

There are two kinds of imitations, one of nature, the other of 
authors. The first we call originals, and confine the term imi- 
tation to the second. 1759, Goldsmith, TV., p. 365. 

If the father of criticism has rightly denominated poetry ... an 
imitative art, the metaphysical poets wiU without great wrong 
lose their right to the name of poets ; for they cannot be said to 
have imitated anything; they neither copied nature nor life; 
neither painted the form of matter, nor represented the opera- 
tions of intellect. 1781. S. JoHxsoy, YIL, p. 15. 

During the first half of the present century the pro- 
cess of imitation and the imaginative activity were 
often identified with each other. The poet a,.,,.,^,,,„ 
must imitate the spirit of nature, he must ^e^^^^ spirit^' 
represent character and sentiment by means ^ '^ ' 
of a sympathetic appreciation of them. When thus 
employed, however, the term 'imitation" had evidently 
acquired a meaning, quite at variance with its more 
primary and fundamental significance. During the last 



164 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

half of the century, this general use of the term is 
scarcely to be found in actual criticism. 

The artist must imitate that which is witliiu the thing, that whicli 
is active through form and llgurc, and discourses to us by sym- 
bols, the Natur-geist, or spirit of nature, as we unconsciously 
imitate those whom we love. 1810. Coleridge, IV., p. 333. 

The truth is, painting and sculpture are, literally, imitative arts, 
while poetry is metaphorically so. ... I would rather call 
poetry a suggestive art. 1825. Td., Prose, I., p. 5. 

The objects of the imitation of poetry are the whole external and 
the whole internal universe, the face of nature, the vicissitudes 
of fortune, man as he is in himself, man as he appears in society, 
all things which really exist, all things of whicli we can form an 
image in our minds by combining together parts of things which 
really exist. The domain of this imperial art is commensurate 
with the imaginative faculty. 1830. Macaulay, I., p. 476. 

Sympathy is one of the strengths of the poet's soul; and symjia- 
thy, at its height and depth, works into imitation. Imitation, 
therefore, is proof, power, test, trial, growth, and result, cause 
and effect, of original genius. 1832. Wilson, VIII., p. 266. 

The second general meaning of "imitation*' — its use 
to represent the influence of authors upon one anotlier 
As free trans- — occurs in actual criticism far more fre- 
lation. quently than the use of the term just given. 

The imitation of authors is found mentioned in two 
different connections, giving to the term, perhaps, 
slightly different shades of meaning. In early English 
criticism, ''imitation" often denoted a free method of 
translation in opposition to a more literal method, — a 
translation, as it were, of the spirit of an author rather 
than of his exact words. 

There be six ways appointed by the best learned men for the learn- 
ing of tongues, and increase of eloquence : as, 1. Translatio 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 165 

linguarum; 2. Paraphrasis ; 3. Metaphrasis ; 4. Epitome; 
5. Iraitatio ; 6. Declamatio. 1568. Ascham, III., p. 174. 

The uuaptiiess of our tongues and the difficulty of imitation dis- 
heartens us. Campion, p. 233. 

Three ways of translating : 1. Metaphrase, exact, literal ; 2. Para- 
phrase ; 3. Imitation, where the transhitor assumes the hberty, 
not only to vary from the words and sense, but to forsake them 
both as he sees occasion, and taking only some general hints 
from the original, to run divisions on the groundwork as he 
pleases. 1680. Dryden, XII., p. 16. 

Imitation gives us a much better idea of the ancients than ever 
translation could do. 1767. Goldsmith, V., p. 155. 

Imitation of authors, however, is usually made an 

opposing term, not to literal translation, but to origi- 

nalitv. Discredit is thrown upon the iinita- As copying of 

one author by 

tion in so far as it is restricted to mere form another. 
of expression; but in so far as the imitation is a repro- 
duction of the general metliod, thouglit, and spirit of 
an author, the disapproval tends to pass away from the 
term. But the highest gifts of authorship, it lias been 
universally recognized, are not to be attained even by 
this form of imitation. This use of imitation occurs 
more frequently at some periods of English criticism 
than at others, but there has perhaps been no variation 
in its meaning. 

A great portion of art consists in imitation, since though to invent 
was first in order of time, and holds the first place in merit, yet 
it is of advantage to copy what has been invented with success. 
QUINTILIAN, II., p. 278. 

Three kinds of imitation : 

1. A fair, lively painted picture of the life of every degree of 

man. Cf. Plato III., "De Kepublica." 

2. To follow for learning of tongues and sciences the best authors. 



166 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

3. Whether to follow one or more, . . . which waj, ... in 
what place, by what mean, and order, e. g., as Virgil fol- 
lowed Homer. Ascham, III., p. 213. 

Describe not the morning and rising of the sun in the preface of 
your verse ; for these things are so oft and so diversely wiitten 
upon by poets already, that if ye do the hke, it will appear ye 
but imitate, and that it comes not of your own invention, which 
is one of the chief properties of a poet. 15S5. K. James, 
pp. 112, 113. 

It is not reading, it is not imitation of an author, which can pro- 
duce this iiueness ; it must be inborn. 1693. DflYDEN, XIII., 
p. 97. 

What Tacitus has said in five words, I imagine I have said in fifty 
lines. Such is the misfortune of imitating the inimitable. 1742. 
Gray, II., pp. 109, 110. 

To admire on principle is the only way to imitate without loss of 
originality. 1817- Coleridge, III., p. 203. 

Shakespeare's style never curdles into mannerism, and thus abso- 
lutely eludes imitation. Lowell, III., p. 36. 

It is the nature of man to select the worst parts of his models for 
imitation. Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxiv. 

The exquisite grace and charm of Lamb, springing in part no 

doubt from an imitation of the unreformed writers . . . had 

yet in it so much of idiosyncrasy that it has never been and is 

never likely to be successfully imitated. Id., p. xxxiv. 

Impalpable (XXII.) ^: Impalpable and indefinable. Swinburne, 

Es. & St., p. 11. 
IMPASSIONED (XV.). 

The term " impassioned," as employed during the 
present century, denotes poetical passion which is in- 
tense and sustained. (See ''Passion.") The emotion 
which it represents is not usually impetuous, but is 
so diffused as to give coherency and unity to the 
whole literary production. The impassioned designates 
the emotion which accompanies an intense interest in 
the beauty of mental imagery, and of ideals. It does 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 167 

not incite to the realization of an ideal so much as to 
the most perfect conception and statement of that ideal. 

Bold and impassioned elevations of tragedy. T. Wauton, p. 886. 
Poetry is the impassioned expression wliicli is in the countenance 

of all science. 1798. Wo-Rdsworth, IL, p. 91. 
Impassioned lines : 

Then let me hug and press thee into life, 

And lend thee motion from my beating heart. — L. Winchelsea. 

1830. Id., III., p. 300. 
Impassioned, lofty, and sustained dictiou. Colehidge, III., 

p. 365. 
Impassioned poetry is an emanation of the moral and intellectual 
part of our nature, as well as of the sensitive, — of the desire to 
know, the will to act, and the power to feel. 1818. Hazlitt, 
Eng. Poets, p. 8. 
Poetical and impassioned. Id., El. Lit., p. 56. 
Spirited and ioipassioned. Id., Table Talk, p. 215. 
The soul of poetry is impassioned imagination. Whipple, Lit. of 

Age of EL, p. 217. 
Impassioned contemplation. Pater, Ap., p. 59. 
Impassioned meditation. Minto, Char, of Eng. Poets, p. 169. 
Impeccable (XJLll.) a: Impeccable ideal liue. Rossetti, Lives, 

p. 78. 
Imperial (XL): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 
Impetuous (XII.) : Blair to present. 

Impetuous, graceful power. Carlyle, IV., p. 130. 
Imposing (XL): Jef., Chan. Jeffrey, IL, p. 55. 
Impressive (XL): Poe to present. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 57- 
Impulsive (XII.): Hunt to present. 

Richardson's nature is always the nature of sentiuient and reflec- 
tion, not of impulse or situation. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, 
p. 160. 
Inanity (XII.) : Inanity and careless workmanship. Gosse, Seven- 
teenth Cent. St., p. 233. 
Inavertible (XXII.)^: Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., p. 103. 
Inchoate (II.) : Ros., Saints. 

Inchoate method of execution. Rossetti, Pref. to Blake, p. cxvii. 



168 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Incisive (XX.) b: Swin. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 138. 
Inconstant (XIX.) : The first defect of Wordsworth's poems is the 

inconstancy of the style. Coleiudge, III., p. 462. 
Indefinable (IH.)- Impalpable and indefinable. Swinburne, Es. 

& St., p. 11. 
Individual: Jef. to present. Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., p. 114. 
Indolence (XII.): Jef., Gosse. 

A golden indolence, akin to the hazy beauty of a summer after- 
noon. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 67. 
Ineptitude: Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., p. 216. 
Inevitable (VJJI.) : Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 5. 
Infantile (XII.): Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., p. 187. 
Inflated (XIX.) 5: J. War. to present. 

Unnatural, false, inflated, and florid style. J. Warton, II., p. 200. 
Ingenious (XXIII.) : Mil. to present. 

With an ingenious flattery of nature. Dryden, II., p. 296. 
Ingenuous (VII.) : T. Arn. to present. Much in use. 

Siaiplicity being true is ingenuous. Ingenuousness is the coun- 
tenance of truth. RossETTi, Lives, p. 62. 
Inimitable (XXII.) a : Jef. to present. 

The inimitable note of instinct. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 62. 
Ink-horne (I.): T. WiL, Ascham, Put 

Never affect strange inkhorn terms. T. Wilson, Ehet., p. 171. 
Many iukhorne terms so ill-afPected, brought in by men of learning, 
as preachers and schoolmasters. Puttenham, p. 158. 
Innocence (XIV.) : Jef. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 70. 
Insight (XXIII.) : The harsh direct narrative of Defoe, without sym- 
pathy or insight. Gosse, Eighteenth Cent. St., p. 385. 
As spontaneous as insight. Stedman, Nature of Poetry, p. 17. 
Insipid (XII.) : Hobbes to present. 

That which fatigues from being too commonplace ; 
without originality or feeling. 

The phrases of poetry, as the airs of music, with often hearing, 

become insipid. Hobbes, IV., p. 455. 
Flimsy and insipid decorum. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 102. 
Cold and insipid works. Howells, Grit. & Eiction, pp. 62, 63. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 169 

Inspired (XY.): Sbaftes. to present. 

There is more of Rhetoric than of inspiration about him. Jef- 
frey, II., p. 405. 
Instructive (XX.) : Dry. Saintsbiiry, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 268. 
Integrity: J. War. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 89. 
INTELLECTUAL (XX.) ^. 

For about a century the word ^' intellectuar' has 
been very generally employed in defining wit and sen- 
timent, and as a complementary expression to the im- 
agination, the emotions, and occasionally to the will. 
Its unity with the other mental powers has usually 
received emphasis rather than its opposition to them. 
It represents not so much conscious elaboration and 
abstraction as a careful meditative attitude of mind, 
and native logical acuteness and penetration. The use 
of the word -'intellectual" as an active critical term 
marks the transference of psychological terminology 
and methods into criticism. 

Impassioned poetry is an emanation of the moral and intellectual 
part of our nature as well as of the sensitive. Hazlitt, Eng. 
Poets, p. 8. 

Tennyson's poetry is characterized by intellectual intensity as dis- 
tinguished from the intensity of feeling. Whipple, Es. & Rev., 
I., p. 339. 

Sentiment is intellectiiaJized emotion. Lowell, II., p. 252. 

Perhaps the main constituent of Longfellow, as a poetical writer, 
is intelligence ... a certain openness to information of all 
sorts, and a readiness at turning it to practical accounts. Ros- 
SETTi, Lives, p. 388. 

Intellect, which in the highest poets co-operates with the affections 
and the imagination, in Victor Hugo is deficient. Dowden, St. 
in Lit., pp. 429, 430. 

The absence of large intellectual power, is also the absence of a 
seat of moral sensibility. Id., p. 433. 



170 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Intelligible (III.)- Gold, to present. 
Intense (XII.) : Haz. to present. 

Much in use. Strength both of thought and of emo- 
tion. Sometimes one is emphasized, sometimes the 
other ; but the term seems to represent their complete 
union or synthesis, and to be measured by the force of 
the impression which the literary work, as a whole, pro- 
duces on the mind of the reader. 

Intensity is the great and prominent distinction of Lord Byron's 
writings. He seldom gets beyond force of style. Hazlitt, 
Sp. of Age, p. 124. 
Strength and intensity of thought. Landou, IV., p. 56. 
Poetry must be intense in meaning. Eagehot, Lit. St., II., 

p. 351. 
Wordsworth ... a meditative and intensive poet. Rossetti, 

Lives, p. 216. 
Wordsworth is never intense for the very reason that he is spirit- 
ually massive. Dowden, St. in Lit., p. 66. 
Interesting (XXII.) &: Hume to present. 

Most pathetic and most interesting, and by consequence the most 
agreeable. Hume, L, p. 264. 
Interminable : Jef. Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 18. 
Intimate: Swin. Gosse, Prom Shak., etc., p. 60. 
Intonation (X.): Swhiburne, Es. & St., p. 7. 
Intrepidity (XIL): Eorce and intrepidity. Jefeeey, I., p. 209. 
Intricate (II.)- J- War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 
Intrigue : Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 36. 
Invective (XXL): Jef. to present. 

Bitter cry of invective and satire. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 20. 
INVENTION (XXIIL). 

Previous to the present century the terra '' inven- 
tion " is to be defined far more as a product than as a 
As imitation P^'<^^<^css. Invention was the result of iraagi- 
of "nature." j^c^^^jy^ activity^ when the object of reprcscnta- 



! 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 171 

tion ^vas either historical truth, or something at vari- 
ance with it. Invention, considered as the portrayal 
of the likeness of truth, occurs chiefly in connection 
with the theory of oratory and the drama. Used in 
this manner, '• invention," when regarded as a product, 
is a means to the *' imitation of nature ; " when re- 
garded as a process, it is synonymous with imitation. 
This is the chief use of the term until near the begin- 
ning of the present century. 

Invention is a searching out of things true, or things likely, the 
which may reasonably set forth a matter, and make it appear 
probable. T. TTilsox, Rhet., p. 6. 

Invention, — finds matter ; 

Disposition, — places arguments ; 

Elocution, — getteth words to set forth invention. Id., p. 170. 

The invention of speech or argument is not properly an invention ; 
for to invent is to discover tliat we know not, and not to recover 
or resummon that which we already kuow; and the use of this 
invention is nt) other but, out of the knowledge, whereof our 
mind is already possessed, to draw forth or call before us that 
which may be pertinent to the purpose which we take into our 
consideration. So as to speak truly it is no invention, but a re- 
membrance, or suggestion, with an application. 1605. Eacox, 
Ad. of E., p. 155. 

So then the first happiness of the poet's ioiagination is properly in- 
vention, or finding of the thought. 1666. Dryden, TX., p. 96. 

In inventing characters, it is better to attach some probable fact 
to a' person who reaUy existed. Rymer, 1st Pt., p. 17. 

By invention is really meant no more (and so the word sigaifies) 
than discovery, or finding out ; or, to explain it at large, a quick 
and sagacious penetration into the true essence of all the objects 
of our contemplation. This, I think, can rarely exist without 
the concomitaucy of judgment; for how we can be said to have 
discovered the true essence of two things, without discerning 
their difPerence, seems to me hard to conceive. 17^9. Field- 
ing, T. Jones, IE, p. 6. 



172 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

What we call invention in poetry, is in respect of the matter of it 
simply, observation. 1751. Hukd, II., p. 158. 

Powers requisite for the production of poetry : 1. Observation 
and description; 2. Sensibility; 3. Eeflection; 4. Imagination 
and fancy; 5. Invention, by which characters are composed 
out of materials supplied by observation; 6. Judgment. 1802. 
Wordsworth, II., p. 130. 

Occasionallj, however, " invention " signified some 
combination of circumstances wliich was not in con- 
As fabrication f ^I'^i^ity with truth. This use of the term 
ofpossit)mties. i^^^^j^^ somewhat prominent in the eigh- 
teenth century. Invention, when thus employed, is to 
be identified with the fancy or imagination as exercised 
in conceits and romances. 

An excellent, sharp, and quick invention, holpen by a clear and 
bright phantasy and imagination ... is not ... to counter- 
feit the natural by the like effects . . . but even as nature her- 
self working by her own peculiar virtue and proper instinct, and 
not by example or meditation or exercise as all other artificers 
do. 1585. PuTTENHA^i, pp. 312, 313. 

His own invention and manufacture. J 699. Bentley, II., p. 81. 

There is a kind of writing wherein the poet quite loses sight of 
nature, and entertains his reader's imagination with the charac- 
ters and actions of such persons as have many of them no exist- 
ence but what he bestows on them. Such are fairies, witches, 
magicians, demons, and departed spirits. This way of writing 
is more difficult than any other, since the poet has no pattern to 
follow in it, and must work altogether out of his own invention. 
1712. Addison, III., p. 422. 

In dreams invention works with that ease and activity that we are 
not sensible when the faculty is employed. Id., p. 2. 

Eor by invention, I believe, is generally understood a creative fac- 
ulty, which would indeed prove most romance writers to have 
the highest pretensions to it. 1749. Yielding, T. Jones, 11., 
p. 6. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 173 

The essence of poetry is invention ; sucli invention as by producing 
something unexpected surprises and delights. 1781. S. John- 
son, YII., p. 213. 

During the present century "invention" has been 

regarded as a process rather than as a product. It 

lias at times been more or less completely As a form of 

the imagi- 
identified with the imaginative activity. Usu- nation. 

ally, however, it indicates that part of the imaginative 
activity which has to do primarily with the coherency 
in mental images, and Avith the combination of cir- 
cumstances, and only secondarily with the relation of 
these images and circumstances to the personal feel- 
ings of the author. "Invention" is thus, in a sense, 
an intellectual intuition, and is perhaps not directly 
influenced by passion or impulse. 

Invention regularly comes before judgment, Tvarmth of feeling be- 
fore correct reasoning. 1825. Jeffrey, I., p. 258. 

Inventiveness of genius. 1826. Hazlttt, PI. Sp., pp. 481,485. 

Briefly the power of the human mind to invent circumstances, 
forms, or scenes, at its pleasure, may be generally and prop- 
erly called, imagination. 1843. Huskix, Modern Painters, 
11."^, p. 3. 

I should say of a work of art tliat it ^vas v;q\\ '' fancied " or vrell 
"invented" or Tvell ''imagined" with only some shades of 
different meaning in the application of tlie terms. Id., p. 2. 

B. Jonson works by effort rather than by inspiration, and leaves 
the impression of ingenuity rather than inventiveness. 1859. 
Whipple, El. Lit., p. 115. 

The highest reach of science is, one may say, an inventive power 
a faculty of divination, akin to the highest power exercised in 
poetry. 1865. M. Arxold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 51. 

Endowed with an imagination of remarkable power and beauty, 
Wordsworth is deficient in the highest of all poetical qualities, 
Invention. Courthope, Lib. M. in E. Lit., pp. 170, 171. 



174 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Heine, a pagan of the lyrical rather than of the inventive cast. 
Stedman, Nature of Poetry, p. 18. 

A lofty if not inventive imagination. Id,, p. 202. 
Invertebrate (II.): Amorphous and invertebrate. Gosse, From 

Shak., etc., p. 22. 
Involution (II.) : Car. to present. 

Biilwer is atrociously involute. PoE, I., p. 347. 
Irony (XYII.) : J . War. to present. 

Irony is akin to cavil. La^ndor, III., p. 149. 

Wit and humor stand on one side, irony and sarcasm on the other. 
Id., IV., p. 282. 

Hence a grand irony in tlie tragedy of Lear ; hence all in it that is 
great is also small. Dowden, Sliak., etc., p. 258. 
Irresistible (KXll.) b: Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 17. 
Jactation: Tedious jactation. Saintsbuky, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 272. 
Jagged (II.) : Jagged and diffuse . . . blank verse. Stedman, Yic. 

Poets, p. 107. 
Jarring (X.): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 73. 
Jaunty (V.): Whip, to present. 

Languid jauntiuess of style. Whipple, Es. & Rev., II., p. 250. 
Jejune (XII.): Goldsmith to present. 

Jejune, far-fetched, and frigid. Hazlitt, Age of EL, p. 211. 
Jingle (X.): Byron's verse halts and jingles. Swinburne, Es. & 

St., p. 246. 
Joyous (XIV.): Bryant. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 68. 
JUDGMENT (XX ). 

The term has been employed ahnost wholly in theorVo 
Three periods may perhaps be distinguished in its his- 
As artful ^0^'- Until the middle of the eighteenth 
^ "^^^* century, ''judgment" represented all the dis- 

crimination and ingenuity exercised in giving to a com- 
position a literary or artistic form of expression. 

When the fancy was yet in its first work, moving the sleeping 
images of things towards the light, there to be distinguislied 
and then either chosen or rejected by the judgment. Dkyden, 
Il.i p. 130. 



A HISTORY OP ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 175 

Judgment is indeed the master workman in a play. Id., XY., 
p. 376. 

During the latter half of the eighteenth century, 
wit, representing the more acute discriminating pow- 
ers of the mind, was distinguished from the ^^ methodic 
judgment. Judgment was not so essential ^^^^®* 
a factor in the production of literature. It was an 
elaborate and intellectual expression of taste, of the 
cultured instinct of order and propriety. 

I mean by tlie word taste no more than that faculty or those fac- 
ulties of the mind which are afPected witli, or which form a 
judgment of the works of imagination and the elegant arts. 
Burke, I., p. 54. 

Judgment implies a preserving that probability in conducting or 
disposmg a composition that reconciles it to credibility and the 
appearance of truth. Goldsmith, IV., p. 418. 

Judgment in the operations of intellect can hinder faults but not 
produce excellence. S. Johnson, YIIT., p. 20. 

Wit and judgment are seldom united. Kames, Eh of Grit., p. 33. 

In the present century the term has been little used. 
It seems to indicate a careful, deliberative attitude of 
mind, which gives to the more purely liter- ^^ elaborate 
ary activities a certain steadiness, and per- ^^^^^■^* 
haps to the composition a certain breadth and finish. 

Taste is the very maker of judgment. Hunt, Im. & Fancy, p. 56. 

There must be wisdom as well as wit, sense no less than imagina- 
tion, judgment in equal measure with fancy, and the fiery rocket 
must be bound fast to the poor wooden stick that gives it guid- 
ance if it would mount and draw all eyes. Lowell, II., p. 81. 
Judicious (XX.) : Dry. to present. 

Little in use since the early portion of tlie present 
century, and also not very much in favor. (See 
''Judgment.") 



176 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

The judicious obscurity ... of Milton's description of Death iu 

the second book. Buhke, I., p. 90. 
A judicial attitude of mind is highly unreceptive, for it necessarily 
implies a restraint of sympathy. Moulton, Shak., etc., p. 7. 
Jumping (X.) ; cf. (XYIII.) : Jumping verses. Buooke, Tennyson, 

p. 54. 
Just (XX.): Gascoigne to present. 

A careful, restrained, and more or less refined method 
of expression. 

The just proportion of our spirits. Daniel, I., p. 231. 

Nothing is truly sublime that is not just and proper. Deyden, 

Yl., p. 401. 
True wit may be defined as a justness of thought and a facility of 

expression. Pope, YL, p. 16. 
The close and reciprocal connection of just taste and pure moraHty. 
Coleridge, IY., p. 52, 
Keen (XX.) h: Goldsmith to present. 

Keen truthfulness. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 71. 
Keeping (IY.) : Camp, to present. 

Perfect keeping ... of Rape of Lock. Lowell, Prose, III., 
p. 34. 
Labored (YIL): Ascham to present. 

In Sallust's writing is more art than nature, and more labour than 

art. Ascham, III., p. 264. 
No matter how slow the style, so it be laboured and accurate. B. 
JoNSON, Timber, p. 54. 
Laborious: Camp, to present. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 131. 
Lachrymose (XY.): Lachrymose and sentimental tragedy. Gosse, 

Life of Congreve, p. 93. 
Laconic (XIX.) &: Car, Poe. 

Laconic pith ... of Burns. Carlyle, II., p. 17. 
Lame (XYIII.) : Gib. to present. 

Ijnme, stifP, and prosaic. Saintsbury, Hist. Pr. Lit., p. 202. 
Languid (XII.): S. John, to present. 

"All, mark!" is rather languid. I would read, "heard ye?'* 
Gray, III., p. 73. 



.1 HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. Ill 

Largeness (XI.): Swin., Dow. 

So large and clear and calm an utterance. Swinburne, Es. & St., 

p. 127. 
The first word of criticism wliicli the poetical works of Edgar 
Quinet suggest, — a really important word, althongli it does not 
imply profound critical insight, — is that they are very large. 
DowDEN, St. in Lit., p. 285. 
The largeness and veracity of George Eliot's art proceed from the 
same qualities which make truth-seeking a passion of her nature. 
Id., p. 295. 
Lascivious (XY.): Whet., Put., Webbe. 
Latinism (L): Lan., Saints. 

This pedantic quibbling Latinism. Landor, IY., p. 454. 
Laxity (XII.) ; cf. (XIXO : T. War. to present. 

Wliere there is laxity there is inexactness. Landor, Y., p. 109. 
Leaping (XYIIL): Wil., Gosse. 

Luminous and leaping Greek words. Wilson, YIIL, p. 420. 
Learned (XX.) &: Haz., Gosse. 

Learned and precise. Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 180. 
Lengthy: Low. to present. 

Prosing lengthiness. Rossetti, Lives, p. 217. 
Level: Haz. to present. 

Pedestrian, unimaginatiTe, level, neutral, Gosse, Hist. Eng, Lit., 
p. 73. 
Levity (XIY.): Daniel to present. 

Yolubility and levity. S. Johnso^^, II., p. 447. 
Liberality (XIY.): T. War., Jeffrey, L, p. 169. 
Liberty : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 9S. 
License (IY.): Swinburne, Mis., p. 52. 
Licentious (I.): Harvey to present. 

I. Previous to the present century, any innovation 
or wide departure from the good usage of separate words 
and in the mechanical construction of composition. 

A mixed and licentious iambic. Harvey, L, p. 21. 
None are more licentious than Pope and Dryden, who perpetually 
borrow foreign idioms, derivatives, etc. Gray, II., p. lOS. 
12 



178 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

II. Extreme moral impurity, later ; not really a crit- 
ical term. 

Life (XII.): Gold, to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 93. 
Life-like (VIII.): Pater. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 13. 
Light (XYIII.) : Ascham to present. 

Much in use. Usually regarded as a characteristic 
of French literature ; airiness of conception and move- 
ment ; acuteness and suppleness rather than depth. 

A Frencii lightness and ease of expression. Whipple, Es. & 

Rev,, I., p. 16. 
Light and thin. Id., p. 57- 

Singular grace, lightness, and elegance. Saintsbury, Hist. Fr. 
Lit., p. 102. 
Lilting (X.) : Lilting measure. Lamb, II., p. 107. 
Limited: Jef., Low. Jeffrey, I., p. 223. 
Limpid (X.) : Low. to present. 

The limpidity ... of the style of Malebranche. Saintsbury, 
Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 378. 
Limping (XYIIL): Limping paraphrase. Gosse, From Shak., etc., 

p. 85. 
Linked (XIIL): Jef., Sted. 

Linked sweetness. Jeffrey, IL, p. 434. 
Literal : Jef. to present. 

Exactness primarily of translation ; occasionally to the fact. Lit- 
eral . . . power of detail. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 74. 
Literary (VII.) : Low. to present. 

Artificial and literary. M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., etc., p. 228. 
Lithe (XYIIL): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 98. 
Little (XL): Puerile and little. J. Warton, IL, p. 202. 
Lively (XII.) : Ascham to present. Much in use. 

The iambic and trochaic are lively meters. Aristotle, Poetics, 

p. 79. 
Minot is an easy and lively versifier. Campbell, IL, p. 27. 
Fresh and lively. Hallam, Lit. Hist., I., pp. 130, 131. 
Living (VIL): Jef. to present. 

Living and organic style. Dowden, St. in Lit., p. 151. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 179 
Lofty (XI.) : Lodge to present. 

Represents a conception intermediate between eleva- 
tion and sublimity : requires both depth of feeling and 
intellectual acumen. 

When tlieir matter is most lieavenlv, their style is most lofty. 

Lodge, p. 11. 
Peerless sublimity and loftiness of style. Xet\tox, Pref. to Tr. of 

Seneca. Spenser Society, XLllL, p. 2. 
Arnold's . . . intellectual processes . . . are spontaneous, and 

sometimes rise to a loftiiiebS vrhich no mere lyrist, without 

unusual mental faculty, can ever attain. Ste d:\iax, Tic. Poets, 

p. 91. 
Logical (XX.) ^: Hazlitt. 

Used almost wholly in theory. Represents the syl- 
logistic and intellectiial relations of the different state- 
ments of a composition to each other. 

It may be questioned whether his wit was anything more than an 
excess of his logical faculty : it did not consist in the play of 
fancy, but in close and cutting combinations of the under- 
standing. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 80. 
The logical faculty has infinitely more to do with poetry than the 

young . . . ever dreams of. TTgeds worth, III., p. 292. 
Men profess to reach their philosophical conclusions by some pro- 
cess of logic ; but the imagmation is the faculty which furnisbes 
the raw material upon which the logic is employed, and uncon- 
sciously to its owners, determines, for the most part, the shape 
into which their theories will be moulded. Stephen, Hrs. in a 
Lib., pp. 18, 19. 

Long-dra"wn : Minto to present. 

Long-winded (KlX.)d: Long-winded verbosities. Caklyle, IL, 
p. 82. 

Loose : Ascham to present. 

Loose-jointed (XIII.) : Loose-jointed octosyllabic lines. Whipple, 
Es. & Rev., p. 258. 

Loquacity (XIX.) d : Car., Saints. 



180 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Lovely (XXII.) b : Hunt to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 98. 
Low (XIV.) : Ascliam to present. 

I. Mean, grovelling. 

Low grossness. Ascham, III., p. 206. 

The low style of Horace is according to bis subject, tbat is, gen- 
erally grovelling. Dryden, XIII., p. 88. 

II. Simple and naive. 

■ Chaucer's descriptive style is remarkable for its lowness of tone, — 
for that combination of energy with simplicity which is among 
the rarest gifts in literature. Lowell, III., p. 353. 

Lucid (III.) : J. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 64. 

Ludicrous (XVII.) : Shaftes. to present. 

The native " flash " of wit viewed as a pi^oduct ; the 
more intellectual phase of the sense of humor, some- 
what elaborated toward the droll. 

The ridiculous . . . contrary to custom, sense, and reason. Haz- 

LiTT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 5. 
Delight in blending the pathetic with the ludicrous is the charac- 
teristic of the true humorist. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., II., 
p. 349. 
Lumbering (XVIII.) : Scott to present. 

Lumbering and disjointed. Saintsbury, Hist. Er. Lit., p. 214. 
Luminous (III.): Jef. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 24. 
Lurid : Low. to present. 

A series of lurid pictures. Lowell, Prose, IL, p. 89. 
Luscious (XXII.) b : Hal., Saints. 

Sweet even to lusciousness. Hallam, IV., p. 282. 
Lusty (XII.) : Ascham, Whip. 

Marlowe ... in his lustiness. Whipple, Es. & Rev., II., p. 18. 
Luxuriant (XIX.) d : Dry. to present. 

Ariosto's style is luxurious, without majesty or decency. Dry- 
den, XIII., p. 15. 
In the department of luxurious ornament, the example of Mr. 
Ruskin may be said to have rendered all other examples com- 
paratively superfluous. Sai^tsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxii. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 181 

LYRICAL (XXI.). 

Four periods may be distinguished in the history of 
the term ^'lyrical." Until about the middle of the 
seventeenth century, the word '-lyrical" was As passion 
employed merely to designate a class of song, 
poetry which was thought to be no better and no worse 
than poetry in general. The accusations made against 
poetry were levelled at the drama rather than at the 
lyric, though in the amative songs of the dramas them- 
selves, the lyric came in for its share of blame. 

TThicli we may call lyrical, because tliey are apt to be sung to au 

instrument. Ca:m:piox, p. 252. 
Lyrical kind of songs and sonnets . . . singing the praises of the 

immortal beauty, the immortal goodness of God. Sidney, p. 52. 
If thou mislike the lyrical, because the chiefest subject thereof is 

love, I reply that love being virtuously intended and \rorthiIy 

placed, is the whetstone of wit and spur to all generous actions. 

1602. Davisox, in Lit. Centuria, I., p. 107. 

During the second period, which extended until about 

the middle of the eighteenth century, lyrical poetry was 

not in good repute with the critics. Their 

As passion. 

attention was centred chiefly upon heroic, 
dramatic, and didactic poetry. The lyric received very 
little notice. It was considered as too crude, primitive, 
impulsive, and passionate. 

Tasso confesses himself too lyrical . . . beneath the dignity of 
heroic verse. Dryden, XIII., p. 15. 

During the latter half of the eighteenth century, the 
lyric was thought to be of equal importance with the 
other species or divisions of poetry. Its ^^ musical 
early crude passion may be said to liave ^™°^°^- 



182 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

become refined into emotion. The term "lyrical'' 
began to exercise a schematizing influence over other 
critical terms which were in active use, but its own 
critical significance was as yet quite incidental to its 
use as a classifying term. 

Alexander's Feast concludes with an epigram of four lines ; a spe- 
cies of wit as flagrantly unsuitable to the dignity, and as foreign 
to the nature of the lyric, as it is of the epic muse. J. Warton, 
I., p. 60. 

Lyric poetry especially should not be minutely historical. Id,, I., 
p. 374. 

Extreme conciseness of expression, yet pure, perspicuous, and mu- 
sical, is one of the grand beauties of lyric poetry. Gray, II., 
p. 352. 

The true lyric style with all its flights of fancy, ornaments, and 
heightening of expression, and harmony of sound, is in its na- 
ture superior to any other style ; which is just the cause why it 
could not be borne in a work of great length. Gray, II., 
p. 304. 

Lyric sweetness. T. WARTo:^r, p. 646. 

During the fourth period, whicli includes the present 
century, the lyric has been in greater favor than the 
As intense other spccics of poetry. A great develop- 
emotion. ment of poetry has taken place in this cen- 
tury, which is neither epic nor dramatic in its nature. 
Hence there has been a tendency to broaden the defi- 
nition of the lyric both in theory and in actual criticism. 
In theory, the' lyric has often been made to include all 
poetry whicli deals with the thoughts and emotions of 
the mind. But in actual criticism it includes only such 
a part of this subjective poetry as is written with the 
intensity and unity of feeling that characterizes the 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 183 

older lyric, — the lyric that had chiefly for its themes 
the passions of love and of heroism. There is thus an 
extension of themes in the modern lyric, but little or 
no change in the method of dealing with these themes. 
The lyric is an intensification of poetical feeling. The 
feeling must be simple and more or less impulsive. It 
must embody itself in vivid images which are directly 
related to the feeling, but not to each other. Even 
dramatic poetry, when in its effect it produces an in- 
tense sesthetic unity, is sometimes classed as lyrical. 

Some of these pieces are essentially lyrical ; and therefore cannot 
have their due force without a supposed musical accompaniment ; 
but in much the greatest part, as a substitute for the classic lyre 
or romantic harp, I require nothing more than an animated or 
impassioned recitation, adapted to the subject. Wordsworth, 
p. 880, Morley's edition of 1893. 
The whole of the Midsummer Night's Dream is one continued 

specimen of the dramatized lyrical. Coleridge, IY., p. 63. 
The highest lyric work is either passionate or imaginative. Swin- 
burne, Es. & St., p. 275. 
The true lyric, — short, at unity with one thought, with one cry 
of joyful or sorrowful passion. Brooke, Early Eng. Lit., 
P- 7. 
Bright, spontaneous, almost lyrical feeling. Dowden, Shak., etc., 

p. 333. 
A lyrical purity and passion. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 167. 
Magazinish (IX.): The mediocrity ... is most miserably maga- 

zinish. Coleridge, Letters, I., p. 117. 
Magical (XXII.) (5: Jef. to present. 

. Magical potency. Rossetti, Lives, p. 388. 
Magnetic (XXII.) b : Low., Ros. 

Wordsworth was not a magnetic poet. Rossetti, Lives, p. 216. 
Magnificent (XL) : Put. to present. Macaulay, I., p. 126. 
Magniloquence (XIX.) b : Magniloquence and amplitude of phrase. 
GossE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 99. 



184 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 
MAJESTIC (XL). 

Previous to the eighteenth century, the term "- ma- 
jestic" signified a commanding sweep of thought and 
As authority expression, a thought simple, elevated, au- 
tude. thoritative, a form of expression — usually a 

metrical movement — imposing, stately, regulated. 

The majesty of God's holy word. Ascham, III., p. 227. 

Majesty of the holy style. Hobbes, IV., p. 4i4io. 

Words borrowed of antiquity do lend a kind of majesty to style, 
for they have the authority of years. 1641. B. JojS'SON, Tim- 
ber, p. 61. 

Ariosto's style is luxurious, without majesty or decency. 1693. 
DUYDEN, XIIL, p. 15. 

The language ... of Waller's poem on the Navy ... is clean 
and majestic. Kymer, 2d Pt., p. 79. 

The Alexandrine adds a certain majesty to the verse, when it is 
used with judgment, and stops the sense from overflowing into 
another line. 1696. Dryden, XIY., p. 208. 

Majesty — offended by rhyme. Id., XV., p. 360. 

Denham's Cooper's Hill, — an exact standard for majesty of style. 
Id., II., p. 137. 

Cowley considered the verse of twelve syllables as elevated and 
majestic, and has therefore deviated into that measure when lie 
supposes the voice heard of the Supreme Being. 1781. S. 
Johnson, YIL, p. 55. 

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the 
" majestic " has often been used to characterize a lower 
As supreme form of sublimity. It has referred more than 

stren^tii and 

magnitude. formerly to the imagery and thought of the 
composition. It has occasionally denoted the literary 
representation of great personal strength. It has 
always represented strength of some kind or magni- 
tude which could never attain to the sublime because 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 185 

it was more simple and direct, less mysterious and 
suggestive. 

The seutimeuts of Chevy-Cliase are extremely natural and poetical, 
aud full of the majestic simplicity Avuich we admire iu the great- 
est of the ancient poets. 1710. Addisox, II., p. 3S1. 
There is in his negligence a rude iuartiticial majesty. 1751. S. 

JoHxsox, III., p. b3. 
Majesty which approaches sublimity. 1760. Gray, I., p. 401. 
Majesty, characteristic of Greek finiteness. Coleeidge, 1\., 

p. 29. 
Majesty, not complete loftiness of thought. De Quixcey, X., 
p. 123. 
Malleability : He strikes after the iron is cold, and there is want of 

malleability in the style. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 179. 
Manly (XIY.) : B. Jon. to present. 

The tone of Shakespeare's writings is manly and bracing. Haz- 
litt, Age of EL, p. 109. 
It is not fastidiousness, but manliness and good feeling, which are 
outraged by such vulgarities. De Quince y, XI , p. 310. 
Mannered (II.) : Mannered sentimentality ... of the Arcadia. 

DowDEX, Tr. & St., p. 282. 
Mannerism (IT.) : Scott to present. 

Much ill use. Elaborate and formal methods of 
writing, not derived from a genuine interest and feel- 
ing for the subject treated of, but from the imitation 
and manipulation of the more mechanical elements of 
style. 

Mannerism and affectation. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 1C3. 

In poetry I have sought to avoid system and mannerism. Shel- 
ley, YIIL, p. 186. 

Until imitation lias run into a spiritless mannerism. Whipple, 
Es. & Rev., I., p. 221. 

Perhaps I ought to have used the word ''mannerism" instead of 
"style," for Chapman had not that perfect control of his matter 
which '"style" implies. On the contrary, his matter seems 



186 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

sometimes to do what it will with him, which is the character- 
istic of mannerism. Lowell, 0. E. D., p. 96. 
MANNERS (VI.). 

The Greek rj6o^ was expressed in early English crit- 
icism by the two words ''manners" and ''character." 
As cultivated (See " Character.") Until the latter part of 

instinct and 

inclination, the eighteenth century, the word "manners" 
frequently denoted the instincts and inclinations of 
the mind which tend toward fixed habits of conduct; 
a certahi refinement of the native bent of character 
toward custom and uniformity; the sense of propriety 
turned toward action and thus exciting perhaps even 
the passions. As the word " manners " gradually came 
to refer more to the fixed habit and less to the native 
inclination, it tended to represent an activity which 
was more physical than mental in its nature ; and by 
the latter portion of the eighteenth century^ though it 
was still occasionally applied to the " internal consti- 
tution of man," it had already become separated from 
all the essential and spontaneous powers of the mind. 
It had been opposed to " action," to the " tragic," and 
" passion," to " character," to " sentiment," and to the 
" poetical." 

The manners in a poem are understood to be those inclinations, 
whether natural or acquired, which move and carry us to ac- 
tions, good, bad, or indifferent, in a play ; or which incline the 
persons to such actions. 1679. Dryuen, YI., pp. 266, 267. 

Under this general head of manners, tlie ]^assions are naturally 
included, as belonging to the characters. Id., p. 274. 

Manners, under which name I comprehend the passions, and in a 
larger sense the descriptions of persons and their very habits. 
1699. Id., XL, p. 220. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 187 

And my idea of comedy requires only that the pathos be kept in 
subordination to the manners. 1751. Hukd, II,, p. 95. 

Compositions that lay open the internal constitution of man, and 
. . . imitate characters, manners, and sentiments. 1756. J. 
Warton, Pope, I., p. 19. 

Pope . . . stuck to describing modern manners ; but those man- 
ners, because they are familiar, artificial, uniform, and polished, 
are in their very nature unfit for any lofty efport of the muse. 
Id., II., p. 402. 

The manners of men . . . shew themselves most usually in action. 
1751. HuRD, II., p. 38. 

Manners, those sentiments which mark and distinguish characters. 
Id., IL, p. 133. 

Actions are the province of tragedy, manners that of comedy. 
1762. GiBBox, lY., p. 137. 

The sentiments, as expressive of manners, or appropriated to char- 
acters, are for the greater part unexceptionably just. 1781. 
S. JoHXSoy, YII., p. 130. 

By the beginning of the present century the word 
" manners " was thought to represent something wholly 
external to the mind. The fixed habit of As formal 

method of 

conduct was regarded as a formal method of ijeiiavior. 
behavior, which in a sense stood over in opposition to 
man himself, — at least to man as furnishing either 
the subject or the inspiration for literary production. 

The excellence of Pope . . . consisted in just and acute observa- 
tions on men and manners in an artificial state of society. 1817. 
Coleridge, III., p. 155. 
We find ... in novels ... a close imitation of men and man- 
ners ; we see the very web and texture of society as it really 
exists, and as we meet with it when we come into the world. 
1819. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 142. 
Many-colored (V.) : Saints. Dowden, St. in Lit., p. 382. 
Marvelous (XXII.) a : Stephen. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 66. 



188 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Masculine (XII.) : Dry. to present. 

Masculine though irregular versification, Scott, Life of Dryden, 
p. 400. 

Masculine, plain, concentrated, and energetic. Landou, IV., 
p. 525. 
Massive (XI.) : Macaulay to present. 

Gotliic massiveness of thought. Poe, I., p. 550. 
Masterly (XXII.) a : Dry. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 25. 
Mawkish (XY.) : Jef., Saints. 

Solemn mawkishness of Cato. Jefprey, II., p. 88. 
Meager (XII.) : Haz. to present. 

Meager and dry. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 320. 
Mean (V.) : Ascham to present. 

A humble, familiar, and extremely simple method 
of writing. 

The metre and verse of Plautus and Terence be very mean, and 

not to be followed. Ascham, III., p. 248. 
Cowley's expressions have sometimes a degree of meanness that 
surprises expectation ; e. g. : — 

Nay, gentle guests, he cries, since now you 're in, 
The story of your gallant friend begin. 

S. Johnson, YII., p. 45. 
Measured (X.) : Jef. to present. 
Mechanical (VII.) : Dry. to present. 
Mediocrity : Cole to present. 

Easy and sensible mediocrity. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., 
p. 88. 
Meditation (XX.) b: Swinburne, Es, & St., p. 165. 
Meetely (IV.) : Meetely currant style ... of Lydgate. Webbe, 

p. 32. 
Melancholy (XIV.) : Wil. to present. 

Such melancholy strain. Wilson, VI., p. 138. 
Mellifluous (X.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 112. 
Mellow: J. War. to present. 

All are mellowed, refined, made exquisite. Dowden, Shak., etc., 
p. 333. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 189 

Melo-drama : Haz to present. 

This is not dramatic but melo-dramatic. There is a palpable disap- 
pointment and falling off where the interest had been worked up 
to the highest pitch of expectation. Hazlitt, El. Lit., p. 43. 

He indulges more frequently than could be wished in downright 
melodrama, or w^hat is generally called sensational writing. 
Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., L, p. 322. 

Eeauty has not come to lift the tale out of the melodrama. Dow- 
den, Tr. & St., p. 380. 
Melody (X.) : Put. to present. 

Much in use in the present century. 

I. Previous to the present century, the melodious 
was usually a smooth and regular combination of ele- 
mentary sounds and syllables. 

That verse may be melodious and pleasing, it is necessary not only 
that the words be so ranged as that the accent may fall on its 
proper place, but that the syllables themselves be so cbosen as 
to flow smoothly into one another. This is to be effected by a 
proportionate mixture of vowels and consonants, and by tem- 
pering the mute consonants with liquids and semivowels. S. 
Johnson, XL, p. 413. 

II. During the present century, melody has repre- 
sented harmony in elementary sounds, especially vow- 
els, resulting both from regularity of arrangement and 
from variation. 

Halleck's poetry is not the melody of monotonous and strictly 
regular measurement. Bryant, Prose, L, p. 383. 
Melting (X.) : Campion, Swin. 

Silent and melting consonants. Campion, p. 259. 
Memorable (XYI.) : Haz. to present. 

As a work of genius, Gorboduc may be set doAvn as nothing, for 
it contains hardly a memorable line or passage. Hazlitt, El. 
Lit., p. 31. 
Poetry should be memorable and emphatic, intense and soon over. 
Bagehot, Lit. St., II., p. 352. 



190 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Mendacious (VIII.) : Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 143. 
Meretricious (V.) : Haz., Poe. 

A meretricious gloss. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 121. 
Meritorious (XXII.) a : Jef., Wil. 

We feel it to be amusing, and therefore are inclined to believe that 
it is meritorious. Wilson, Y., p. 366. 
Metallic: Gosse, Lifeof Congreve, p. 137. 
Metaphorical (VIII.): Hal. 

Metaphor must be the language when we travel in a country be- 
yond our senses. Rymer, 2d Pt., p. tt4. 
Bacon is sometimes too metaphorical and witty. Hallam, III., 
p. 65. 
Metaphysical : J. War. to present. 

Petrarch's sentiments are metaphysical and far-fetched. J. War- 
ton, I., p. 65. 
Metrical (X.) : Ros., Saints. 

The rhythmical considered as a product, as a sequence 
of accented and unaccented sounds capable of being 
reduced to exact rule and method. 

The metrical pomp is made . . . effectually to aid the pomp of the 

sentiment ... in Milton. De Quincey, XI., p. 456. 
The language alike of poetry and prose attains a rhythmical power 
independent of metrical combinations, and dependent rather on 
some subtle adjustment of the elementary sounds, of words 
themselves to the image or feehng they convey. Pater, Ap., 
p. 57. 
Might (XI.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 203. 
Mild (XIX.) : Ascham to present. 

The mild or rough polemic of Halifax and Bentley. Saintsbury, 
Eng. Pr. St., p. xxiv. 
Mimicry: Macaulay, L, p. 2]. 

Mincing (XII.) : Mincing sweetness of versification. Gosse, Seven- 
teenth Cent. St., p. 15. 
.Minute (VIII.) d : J. War. to present. 

A minute and particular enumeration of circumstances, judiciously 
selected, is what chiefly discriminates poetry from history. J. 
Waeton, I., p. 47. 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 191 

Prolixity, produced by tins finical nnnuteness of language, ends 
by distressing oue's nerves. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., I., 
pp. 365. 366. 
Miraculous (XXIL) a : Jeffrey, 11. , p. 73. 
Misty (III.) : Ossianic tumidity and rnisiiness. PlOssetti, Pref. to 

Blake, p. cxiii. 
Mock-heroic : Jef. to present. 
Model (XXII.) a : Swinburne, Mis., p. 10. 
Moderation (XIX.) b\ ^l. Arnold to present. 

Sureness of hand and moderation of ^rork. Rossetti, Life of 
Keats, p. ISO. 
Modern (IV.) : J. AVar. to present. 

The term has always designated a departure from 
the spirit of the ancient classics in this century ; occa- 
sionally it has denoted a departure from the spirit of 
Medievalism. 

See, X'ature liastes her earliest Tvreaths to bring, 
TTith all the incense of the breathing spring. 
These lines have too much prettiness and too modern an air. J. 

TTahto^', Es. on Pope, L, p. 11. 
A pretty modernism. Gray, II., p. 353. 

Werther ... is in the modern style. H.izlitt, El. Lit., p. 266. 
Heine's intense modernism, his absolute freedom, his utter rejec- 
tion of stock classicism and stock romanticism. M. Arnold, 
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 178. 
Modest (XIX.) /; : Blair to present. 
Modulation (X.) : Jef. to present. 

Carefully modulated expression. GossE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 89. 
Monochordic (X.): "''In Memoriam " is monochordic but not 

monotonous. T. Arnold, Man. of Eng. Lit., p. 451;. 
Monotonous (11.) : Pymer to present. Recently much in use. 

The monotony of Johnson's style produces an apparent monotony 

of ideas. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 13.5. 
-\Ionotonous and disgusting. Saixtsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxvii. 
Monumental: (V.); The Dunciad is the most absolutely eliiselled 
and monumental work ''exacted" in our country. Kusrin, 
Lectures on Art, pp. S6, S7. 



192 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

MORAL (XIY.). 

The history of the term "moral" may be divided 
into three periods. Until within the eighteenth cen- 
tury the term " moral " denoted certain fixed 

As conven- ^ 

cipiSo/^^" i'^il^s and ideals of conduct, derived in part 
conduct. from Scriptural authority, in part from cus- 

tom and precedent, and in part perhaps from instincts 
of the mind which were thought to be permanent and 
unchangeable. But from whatever source derived, 
morality, composed of fixed,* eternal principles, stood 
over against and entirely independent of literature con- 
sidered merely as literature. During the first century 
of English criticism, in all the charges made against 
poetry and in the defences of it alike, the common as- 
sumption was made that literature could justify its 
existence only by inculcating some moral lesson which 
was more or less completely foreign to the nature of 
literature as such. During the latter portion of the 
seventeenth and early portion of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, the opposition between morality and poetry, 
though still continuing, was perhaps viewed from a 
slightly different standpoint. The imagination in po- 
etry was thought to do violence to the world of reality, 
of order, of moral action ; and yet by means of satire 
and direct teaching, poetry could be thoroughly per- 
meated by the didactic spirit and purpose, — could be 
made to do duty for the cause which of itself it would 
violate. 

Gorbodue is full of notable morality, which it doth most delight- 
fully teach. Sidney, p. 47. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 193 

To make brick without straw or stubble is perhaps au easier labour 
than to prove morals without a world, and establish a conduct of 
life without the supposition of anything living or extant besides 
our immediate fancy and world of imagination. Shaftesbury, 
III., p. 147. 

Nor will a man, after the perusal of thousands of these perform- 
ances, find his knowledge enlarged with a single view of nature, 
not produced before, oi* his imagination amused with any new 
application of those views to moral purposes. 1750. S. John- 
son-, II., p. 177. 

During the eighteenth century — especially the latter 
portion of it — morality was often identified with the 
more conservative tendencies in literature. As effective 

principles of 

The moral was that which was most useful conduct, 
from the external and mechanical point of view; and 
to this general spirit of utilitarianism, literature could 
in a measure be made to conform in so far as the im- 
agination was kept under constant restraint by the 
judgment. 

A due sentiment of morals is wanting which alone can make ns 
knowing in order and proportion, and give us the just tone and 
measure of human passion. Shaftesbury, I., p. 218. 

Yirtue is the foundation of taste, etc. Goldsmith, I., p. 331. 

During the present century the moral sense and liter- 
ary intuitions have been very generally identified with 
each other as forming parts of one and the Asdeyeiopin? 
same mental process. The difference between conduct, 
the ethical impulse to do and the artistic impulse to 
create is recognized as one of degree and not of kind. 
It has thus become the business of literature, not to 
preach morals, but to be moral, and to be moral simply 
because it is literature. 

13 



194 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

A pathetic reflection, properly introduced into a descriptive poem, 
will have greater force and beauty, and more deeply interest a 
reader, than a moral one. 1756. J. Warton, I., p. 32. 

Impassioned poetry is an emanation of the moral and intellectual 
part of our nature, as well as of the sensitive. 1818, Hazlitt, 
Eng. Poets, p. 8. 

A man to be greatly good must imagine intensely and comprehen- 
sively, — go out of his own nature and identify himself with 
beauty not his own. The great secret of morals is love. 1821. 
Shelley, YII., p. 111. 

If you insist on my telling you wbat is the moral of the Iliad, I 
insist upon your telling me what is the moral of a rattlesnake, 
or che moral of a Niagara. 1847. De Quincey, XI., p. 455. 

All the virtues of style are in their roots morah They are a rever- 
beration of the soul itself, and can no more be artificially ac- 
quired than the ring of silver can be acquired by lead. 
Mathews, Lit. St., p. 29. 

Poetry is interpretative both by having natural magic in it and by 
having moral profundity. 1865. M. Ae:n^old, Cr. Es,, 1st S., 
p. 111. 

Though it is not the business of art to preach morality, still I think 
that, resting on a divine and spiritual principle, like the idea of 
the beautiful, it is perforce moral. Howells, Crit. & Piction, 
pp. 60, 61. 
Morbid (VII.) : Eos. to present. 

Morbid tone. Rossetti, Lives, p. 208. 
Motion (XVIIL): The Ancient Mariner has . . . more of material 
force and motion than anything else of the poet's. Swinburne, 
Es. & St., p. 264. 
Motive (Xlll.) : Pater. 

Motives are symptoms of weakness and supplements for the defi- 
cient energy of the living principle, the law within us. Cole- 
rtdge, I., p. 166. ^ 

Motley (IL) : J. War., Gosse. 

Motley discourse. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 100. 
Mot-propre : Saintsbury. 
Movement (XVIIL) ; Poe to present. 

The peculiar cfPect of a poet resides in his manner and movement. 
M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., etc., p. 153. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 195 

Moving (XYII ) : J. War. to present. 

That moving is of a higher degree than teaching, it may by this 
appear, that it is wellnigh both the cause and the effect of teach- 
ing. Sidney, p. 22. 
Tragical and moving. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 279. 
Mundane : Mundane and vulgar in style. Gosse, From Shak., etc., 

p. 225. 
Muscular (XII.): Whip., Gosse. 

Sentences full of muscular life ... in Coleridge. Whipple, Es. 
& Rev., I., p. 417. 
MUSICAL (X.). 

During the latter portion of the eighteenth century 

the term " musical " denoted combinations of sounds 

and of metrical movements, which were . 

^ As smootn 

smooth and agreeable to a cultivated and ??mtomations^ 
critical ear. When the term referred to the °^ ^^^^* 
metrical movement, it represented that which was 
agreeable in sound because it was regular and me- 
thodic. When the' term referred to the mere combi- 
nations of sounds, it perhaps indicated a slight appeal 
to the native sense of hearing and harmony. 

Waller's numbers are not always musical, as — 
Eair Yenns in thy soft arms 

The god of rage confine, 
Eor thy whispers are the charms 

Which only can divert his fierce design. 

1781. S. Johnsons', YII., p. 207. 
A musical close in our language requires either the last or the last 
but one to be a long syllable. Blair, Rhet., p. 140. 

During the earlv portion of the present century, the 

" musical " often denofed that blending and continuity 

of sound — and perhaps of thought — which As simple 

1 .;i ,1 . . P^ elevated har 

IS m harmony with the spirit of song-. The ^ony of 

^ ^ tliou§:lit and 

aesthetic effect upon the reader was the onlv ^^suage. 



196 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMB. 

test as to whether or not this blending and continuity 
had been attained. 

The musical in sound is the sustained and continuous ; the musi- 
cal in thought is the sustained and continuous also. 1818. 
Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, p. 16. 

Rousseau is . . . the only musical composer that ever had a tolei- 
able ear for prose. Music is both sunshine and irrigation to the 
mind; but when it occupies and covers it too long, it debilitates 
and corrupts it. 1826. Landor, IV., p. 273. 

Milton is not a picturesque but a musical poet. 1810. Cole- 
ridge, IV., p. 304. 

Spenser's best thoughts were born in music. 1859. Whipple, 
El. Lit., p. 215. 

During the latter portion of the present century, the 
term " musical " has directly referred only to the sounds 
As harmony ^^^ rhythms of a composition, — more di- 
of sound. rectly perhaps to the sounds than to the 
rhythms. It denotes primarily a harmonious blending 
of sounds, incidentally of rhythms, and occasionally, 
perhaps, it still indirectly represents a lyrical strain 
of thought. 

Happy coalescence of music and meaning (in Spenser). Lowell, 
IV., p. 308. 

In all poetry, the very highest as well as the very lowest that is 
still poetry, there is something which transports, and that some- 
thing in my view is always the music of the verse, of the words, 
of the cadence, of the rhythm, of the sounds superadded to the 
meaning. 1889. Saintsbury, Eng. Lit., pp. 26, 27- 

Such gift of appreciation depends on the habitual apprehension of 
men's life as a whole . . . the musical accordance between hu- 
manity and its environment. 1878. Pater, Ap. pp. 118, 119. 

Prose literature and music are the characteristic arts of the cen- 
tury. They are in one sense the opposite term.s of art ; the art 
of literature presenting to the imagination, through the intelli- 
gence, a range of interests as free and various as those which 
music presents to it through the sense. Id., p. 35. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 197 

Mystical (III.) : T. WiL, Jef. to present. 

I. Viewed as to its purpose the " mystical," or mys- 
ticism, often represents the attempt to give more or 
less concrete expression to things purely spiritual and 
in themselves incomprehensible. 

Some do use after the literal sense to gather a mystical under- 
standing, and to expound the sayings spiritually. T. Wilson, 
Rhet., p. 118. 

Novalis . . . had an affinity vriili mysticism, in the primary and 
true meaning of that word, exemplified in some shape among our 
own Puritan divines. Carlyle, II., p. 201. 

Mysticism proper is the abuse of this tendency which prompts to 
the impossible feat of soaring altogether beyond the necessary 
base of concrete realities. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., II., p. 3S. 

II. Viewed as to its effect, the '' mystical " often, 
perhaps usually, represents indefiniteness of mental 
imagery, and extreme remoteness of suggestion in 
composition ; obscurity, which is neither verbal nor 
logical in its origin. 

Parabola . . . resemblance mystical. Puttexham, p. 251. 
The presence of a mystical element is the mark of all lofty imagi- 
nations. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., IL, p. 37. 
Naive (YIL) : Put., Blair to present. 

The naive . . . opposed to self-consciousness. Symoxds, Es., 
etc., p. 175. 
Naivete (VIL) : Hume to present. 

Ingenuous simplicity and naturalness, so extreme as 
to be more or less amusing, and supposed to represent 
a revelation of character in its native beauty and truth. 

The absurd naivete of Sancho Pancho. Hu:^e, L, p. 240. 
Naivete ... is no other than beautiful nature, without affectation 

or extraneous ornament. Goldsmith, I., p. 328. 
Naivete and truth of local coloring. Hazlitt, El. Lit., p. 119. 



198 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Naivete, wbicli becomes wit to the bystander, though simply the 
natural expression of the thought to him who utters it. De 
QuiNCEY, v., p. 156. 
The Erench naivete always expresses a discovery of character. 

Blair, Rhet., p. 207- 
The felicity and idiomatic naivete ... of Walton. Mathews, 
Lit. St., p. 7. 
Naked (XVI.) : Swin., Samts. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 
Namby-Pamby (XV.) : Pope to present. 
The cock is crowing. 

The stream is flowing, etc. (Wordsworth.) 
This is Namby-Pamby. Byro:n^, Life and Letters, p. 669. 
Burns was not a sickly sentimentalist, a Namby-Pauiby poet. 

Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, p. 170. 
A seven-syllabled measure, which earned Phihpps . . . the name 
of Namby-Pamby. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 138. 
Narrow (XIII.) b : Stephen. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 170. 
Native (VII.) : Pope to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 75. 
Naturalism : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 10. 
NATURAL (Vll.). 

The history of the adjective " natural " does not 
coincide by any means with that of the noun '' nature." 
As the spon- '^'^^ term " natural " has perhaps undergone 
taneous. ^^^ change of meaning whatever in English 

criticism. It signifies that which in the light of pres- 
ent inclination and of past habit seems least abrupt 
and unexpected, that which produces least jar and 
surprise in its apprehension. Since, however, one 
always expects a certain amount of change, since with- 
out this change, in fact, expectation cannot be awak- 
ened in the mind, the " natural " sometimes denotes 
the spontaneous, the unartificial, the sincere. 

Tlie Georgiac, which is not to appear in the natural simplicity and 
nakedness of its subject, but in the pleasantest dress that poetry 
can bestow on it. Addison, I., p. 158. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CPdTICAL TERMS. 199 

Dryden . . . had so little sensibility of the power of effusions 
purely natural that he did not esteem them in others. 1781. 
S. Johnson, YIl, p. 3i0. 

What has since been called Artificial Poetry was then flourishing, 
in contradistinction to natural ; or Poetry seen chiefly through 
art and books, and not in its first sources. 1811. Hunt, Im. 
& Pancy, p. 39. 

Simple, natural, and honest. Ho wells, Crit. & Piction. 

More often, however, in applied criticism "natural" 
represents that which is most habitual and ^ ^^ ^^^^ 
therefore most to be expected. It is often ^^ P^^^a^ie. 
closely synonymous with probability. 

Natural propriety ... of verse. Webbe, p. 63. 
An apter and more natural word. Puttenha"m, p. 1S9. 
Unnatural . . . and constrained. Detden, XY., p. 362. 
Whether the practice of soliloquizing on the stage be natural or no 
to us ... we ought to make it so by study and apphcation. 

SHATTESBrBY, I., pp. 121, 125. 

Natural and easy. Id., p. 183. 

Easy and natural Addison, L, p. 115. 

Natural and probable. Blaib, Rhet., p. 508. 

Distorted and unnatural. J. Wakton, II., p. 22. 

Naturally and gracefully. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 179. 

Naturally and necessarily to accomplish the order of events. 

Landob, IY., p. 111. 
Bizarre or unnaturaL Whipple, Lit. of Age of EL, p. 232. 
Non-natural, twisted, allusive. Saintsbuby, Eng. Pr. St., p. xliv. 
NATURE (YIP). 

The history of the term " nature " exhibits a devel- 
opment along two almost independent lines of meaning. 
The variation in these tvro general lines of meaning 
does not occur at the same time, and hence it is im- 
possible to divide the history of the term into well 
defined periods. In general, however, five such pe- 



200 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

riods may be distinguished, which are more or less 
exclusive of one another. 

The first period, which extends until the latter part 
of the seventeenth century, includes two uses of the 
Asimman term. Its first use was similar to that which 
impiAsesSd^ it possessed in ancient criticism. Nature 
^ ^^' represented those primary activities of the 
mind which precede, underlie, and for the most part 
determine all conscious elaboration, study, and effort. 
Even these primary activities, however, were conceived 
of in two ways. On the one hand, they were thought 
to be instincts, which acted according to fixed and 
given methods, and which thus set up unchangeable 
laws and principles for literature. On the other hand, 
these primary activities were regarded as impulses, 
which followed no law or method so far as known, but 
tended to disregard existing methods in view of pos- 
sibly better ones. There were thus, in a sense, two 
meanings in this primary use of the term " nature." 

(Nature herself teaches us to choose the fit meter^ the heroic. 
AnisTOTLE, Poetics, p. 15. 

In art we admire exactness, in the works of nature magnificence ; 
and it is from nature that man derives the facuhy of speech. 
LONGINUS, p. 70. 

All arts depeud upon nature. Only the poet, disdaining to be tied 
to any such subjection, lifted up with the vigor of his own in- 
vention, doth grow in effect into another nature . . . freely 
ranging within the zodiac of his own wit. 15 S3. Sid^^ey, 
p. 7. 

The poet is not as the painter to counterfeit the natural by the 
like effects . . . but even as nature herself working by her own 
peculiar virtue and proper instinct, and not by example or medi- 
tation or exercise as all other artificers do. 1585. PuTTE^■- 
HAM, pp. 312, 313. 



A HISTORY OF EX GUSH CRITICAL TERMS. 201 

Nature is always the same, like lierself ; and when she collects her 
strength is abler still. Men are decayed, and studies : she is 
not. 1641. B. JoxsoN, Timber, p. 7- 

In his amorous verses where nature only should reign. 1692. 
Dryden, XIII., p. 6. 

It is not reading, it is not imitation of authors, which can produce 
this fineness ; it must be inborn ; it must proceed from a genius, 
and particular way of thinking which is not to be taught, and 
therefore not to be imitated by him who has it not from nature. 
1693. Id., p. 97. 

The second early meaning of the term is closely con- 
nected with its use during the eighteenth century. 
Nature indicated whatever comes to the ^ external 
mind through the special senses, the outer ^^^* 
existence, whether consisting of present facts or of past 
events. 

Art and Nature (summary). 

1. Art an exact imitator of nature. 

2. Art heightens the beauties of nature. 

3. Axt covers defects of nature. 

4. Art develops forms wholly beyond nature. 1585. Puttex- 

HA^, pp. 308-312. 
Poetry . . . commonly exceeds the measure of nature, joining at 

pleasure things which in nature would never have come together. 

Bacox, IY., p. 292. 
Nature, a thing so almost infinite and boundless as can never be 

fully comprehended, but wliere the images of aU thiQgs are 

always present. 1661. Dryden, II., p. 132. 
With an ingenious flattery of nature, to heighten the beauties of 

some parts and hide the deformities of the rest. 1667. Id., 

p. 296. 
The obstacles which hindered the design or action of the play once 

removed, it ends with that resemblance of truth and nature that 

the audience are satisfied with the conduct of it. 1668. Id., 

XV., pp. 303, 304. 
All that is dull, insipid, languishing, and without sinews in a poem 

is called an imitation of nature. 1674. Id., V., p. 120. 



202 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

From the latter portion of the seventeenth century 
to the middle of the eighteenth century, ''nature'^ 
As hmnan usually represented that part of external fact 
nauy and which relates to human action and achieve- 

Mstoricaily 

considered. ment. The term was often employed in the 
discussion of the plots or characters of a drama. Hence 
it became associated with such expressions as ''possi- 
bility, probability, and historical truth." When thus 
employed, the term derived its meaning wholly from 
the past, and indicated the ordinary course of human 
affairs, the established methods of action and perform- 
ance. During the first half of the eighteenth century 
this was almost the only meaning given to the term 
"nature." 

There are some that are not pleased with fiction, unless it be 
bold ; not only to exceed the work, but also the possibility of 
nature. 1650. Hobbes, IV., p. 451. 
Ariosto's . . . adventures are without the compass of nature and 

possibility. 1693. Deyden, XIII., p. 15. 
There is nothing of nature and probability in all this. ... It may 
be Romance, but it is not Nature. Hymer, 1st Pt., p. 125. 
Those rules of old discovered, not devised, 
Are nature still, but nature methodised, 

1711. Pope, II., p. 38. 
Imitation of nature and uniformity of design. Swiet, XIII., p. 33. 

During the third period, which includes the latter 

half of the eighteenth century, the term " nature " was 

As native employed in three ways. Often it was em- 

impulse or 

capacity. ployed, like the term '^ genius," to explain 
any bold and successful departure from the ordinary 
and established methods of composition. Nature rep- 
resented the primary native capacities of the mind. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 203 

which, by asserting themselves in literature, widened 
its range of sympathy and interest. Nature was thought 
of as lawless, rather than as the source of new law and 
method. 

Shakespeare was iiaturallv learned : lie needed uot the spectacle of 
books to read nature ; he looked inwards and found her there. 
... He is always great when some great occasion is presented 
to him ; no man can say lie ever had a fit subject for his wit, 
and did not then raise himself high above the rest of poets. 
1765. S. JoH^sox, v., p. 153. 

As regards external nature, the last half of the 
eighteenth century was decidedly a pej'iod of transi- 
tion. Nature was not considered in so ex- ^g external 
clusively historical a light as formerly. It ^^^^'' 
usually indicated an outer uniformity and order, which 
could have been determined only from past experience, 
but still it had some vague reference to present fact, 
and the ascertained uniformity and order was not al- 
ways taken as authoritative in literature. 

Characters in poetry may be a little overcharged or exaggerated 
without ofi'ering violence to nature. 1761. GoLDs:y:iTH, I., 
p. 339. 

By nature we are to suppose can only be meant the known and 
experienced course of affairs in this world. Whereas the poet 
has a world of his own, where experience has less to do than 
consistent imagination. 1762. Hurd, 1Y ., p. 3-21. 

In Lycidas there is no nature, for there is no truth. ... Its inhe- 
rent improbability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind. 
1781. S. Johnson, Yll, p. 120. 

After about half a century of forced thoughts and rugged meter, 
some advances toward nature and harmony had been made by 
Waller and Denham. 1781. Id., pp. 307,^ 308. 



204 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Throughout all of the eighteenth century, and espe- 
cially during the latter half of it, there may be traced 
As external in criticism a growing sense of form and 
color. color, of beauty in external nature. This 

conception of nature, however, was not regarded with 
much favor in criticism, and had very little influence 
upon the use of " nature " as an actual critical term. 

It may be observed in general tliat description of the external 
beauties of nature is usually the first effort of a young genius, 
before he hath studied manners and passions. 1756. J. War- 
ton, I., p. 35. 

Three sources of beauty, — 
1. Man, e. g., Euripides, etc 

3. Nature, as vast as it is, has furnished few images to poets. 
3. Art. 1759. Gibbon, IY., p. 23. 

Congreve . . . draws a great deal more from life than from nature. 
1758. Goldsmith, IV., p. 427- 

The fourth period includes the first few decades of 

the present century. Historical nature disappeared 

As life, the from criticism. The sense of external beauty 

essence of 

being. in nature was considered as an inner sense 

rather than as beauty wliich was external to the mind. 
Nature denoted life, inner and outer, the growing prin- 
ciple of all existence, inner impulse and outer devel- 
opment, which were perhaps in some manner to be 
identified with each other, and whose representative in 
literature was the imagination. 

The wonderful twilight of the mind, and mark Cervantes's courage 
in daring to present it, and trust to a distant posterity for an 
appreciation of its truth to nature. 1810. Coleridge, IV., 
p. 274. 

From copying the artificial models, we lose sight of the living prin- 
ciple of nature. 1820. Hazlitt, El. Lit., p. 20. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 205 

Poetry is an imitation of nature, but tlie imagination and the pas- 
sions are a part of man's nature. Id., PL Sp., p. 4. 

Poets liave penetrated into the mystery of Nature . . . and thus 
can the spirit of our age, embodied in fair imagination, look 
forth on us. 1827- Carlyle, I., p. 56. 

Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection ; and trust 
more to your imagination than to your memory. 1833. Cole- 
ridge, YI., p. 316. 

During the latter portion of the present century, 
"nature" seems to have become very largely a retro- 
spective term, beino' applied especially to the As external 

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ law and 

writings of the Lake School of poets. In so l5eaut3^ 

far as actively employed in criticism, ''nature" repre- 
sents the external world, a world which unites in a 
manner the scientific conception of orderly development 
with the artistic conception of beauty. In this meaning 
of the word " nature," however, it can scarcely be said 
to have been employed as a critical term. 

If in the realistic tide that now bears us on there are some spirits 
who feel nature in another way, in the romantic way or the 
classic way, they would not falsify her in expressing her so. 
HowELLS, Crit. & Fiction, p. 63. 

The old formula of Greek philosophy, (rjv Kara cpvo-Lv, ''to live ac- 
cording to nature," might be accepted as our rule, if "nature" 
be understood to include the action of the higher part of our 
humanity in controlling or modifying the lower and grosser part. 
DowDEN, St. in Lit., p. 117. 

Nature is indeed the teacher of all true poets, but like a wise 
teacher she does not put all scholars through the same course 
of study. Id., p. 181. 

Of the things of nature the medieval mind had a deep sense ; but 
its sense of them was not objective, no real escape to the world 
without us. 1SS3. Pater, Ap., p. 218. 
Nauseous (XXII.) b : Powden, Tr. & St., p. 134 



206 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Neat (V.) : Lodge to present. 

Pope had a sense of the neat rather than of the beautiful. Low- 
ell, Prose, IV., p. 34. 
Negligent (XIX.): Pope to present. 

Horace still charms with graceful negligence. Pope, IL, p. 75. 
Nemesis: Retribution as it appears in the world of art. Moulton, 

Sliak., etc., p. 107- 
Neo-Classicism : Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. St , p. xxxi. 
Nerveless (XII.) : Whip, to present. 

Nerveless and hysterical verses. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 269. 
Nervous (XII ) : J. War. to present. 

Sustained strength and energy of style. 

Nervous and energetic. J. Warton, IL, p. 113. 
Keats entirely fails of Milton's nervous severity of phrase. Low- 
ell, lY., p. 86. 
Daudet's style has taken on bone and muscle and become conscious 
of treasures of nervous agility. H. James, Par. Portraits, p. 231. 
Neutral (XY.) : Jef, Gosse. Jeffrey, III., p. 48. 
New (IX.): Hymer to present. 

Refers both to the thought and to the emotion or 

feeling of a literary work ; more usually, however, to 

the thought. 

The thoughts new and noble. Ryjmee, 2d Pt., p. 79. 

Keats . . . has that indefinable newness and unexpectedness which 

we call genius. Lowell, Lat. Lit. Es., I., p. 242. 
The problem is to express new and profound ideas in a perfectly 
sound and classical style. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 65. 
Niaiserie (XL): Poe, M. Arn. M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., etc., p. 235. 
Nicety (V.) : Dry. to present. 

In this nicety of manners does the excellence of Erench poetry 

consist. Dryden, Y., p. 329. 
The little niceties and fantastical operations of art. Pope, X., 

p. 532. 
Trifling distinctions and verbal niceties. Gray, II. , p. 147. 
Noble (XL): Hobbes to present. 

The grand style, at once noble and natural. Lowell, III., p. 173. 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 207 

Noisy (XIX.) Z* : Noisy alexaudriues. Gosse, Life of Cougreve, p. 85. 
Nonsense (XX.) a : Jef. Saintsbury, Hist. Eug. Lit., p. 168. 
NOVELTY (IX.). 

The term •• novelty " was in greatest use in criticism 

during the latter part of the eighteenth century and 

the first few decades of the present centurv. As extrava- 
gant strange- 
There is found mentioned novelty of Ian- ^less. 

guage, of images, and more often of thought; but far 
more usually the term •• novelty'' has designated merely 
a general impression, which the literary composition 
as a whole makes upon the mind of the reader. Pre- 
vious to the present century, the term was not very 
much in favor. It was employed to characterize ex- 
travagant conceits, and all abrupt violations of regu- 
larity and unity in composition. Xovelty was thought 
to be opposed to nature, to propriety, and even to 
variety ; it was an affectation and a conceit, it stirred 
the passions, led to excess, and " violated essential prin- 
ciples of literature." Xovelty was recognized, however, 
as a legitimate element of the comical or humorous. 

Those writers (Cowley, etc.) who lay on the watcli for novelty 
could have little hope of greatness. . . . Their attempts were 
always analytic; they broke every image into fragments. 17SI. 
S. Johnson, YIL, pp. 16, 17. 

Addison's humour is so happily diffused as to give the grace of 
novelty to domestic scenes and daily occurrences. Id., p. 472. 

During the present century '' novelty" has usually 
represented the intellectual surprise which is more or 
less consequent upon all change in literature. As stimulating 
In the early part of the present century ^'nov- strangeness, 
elty" frequently indicated the general sense of new- 



208 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

ness which resulted from the revolution in literature 
that was then taking place. But in so far as the 
sense of change is not general, in so far as it arises 
from the modification of some specific feature of the 
composition, and can be localized, so to speak, the term 
" novelty*-' tends to denote mere intellectual restless- 
ness on the part of the writer, a desire for change for 
the sake of change, a conscious search for the unex- 
pected, the striking, the surprising. 

In philosophy as iu poetry, it is the highest and most useful pre- 
rogatiye of genius to produce the strongest impression of nov- 
elty, while it rescues admitted truths from the neglect caused by 
the very circumstance of their universal admission. 1825. Cole- 
ridge, I., p. 117. 
The native spirit of novelty and movement. 1865. M. Ari^old, 
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 175. 
Numbers (X.): Gib., Gosse. 

Kipened into ease, correctness, and numbers. Gibbon, Life and 
Writings, I., p. 254. 
Numerous (X.) : Campion to Emerson. 

His prose is numerous and sweet. J. Warton, II., p. 8. 
Objective : R. Browning, Sted. 

Shellej ... is a subjective, Shakespeare an objective poet. R. 
Browning, Essay on Shelley in The Browning Society Papers, 
1881-84, Pt. I., p. 5. 
Ehzabethan style objective rather than subjective. Stedman, 
Yic. Poets, p. 47. 
Obscene (XIY.) : Dry., Jef. to present. 
Obscure (III.) : Ascliam to present. 

I. Until the middle of the eighteenth century the 
term ''obscm-e" uniformly indicated the mdistinct- 
ness and confusion which results from an inexact use 
of words, or from an imperfect logical sequence of 
statement. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 209 

The worst kind of obscurity is that . . . when words that are 
plain in one sense have another sense concealed in them. 

QUINTILIAN, II., p. 84. 

An ambitious obscurity of expression. Hobbes, IY., p. 454. 

Shakespeare's whole style is so pestered with figurative expres- 
sions that it is as affected as it is obscure. Dryden, YI., 
p. 255. 

Obscurity bestows a cast of the wonderful, and throws an oracular 
dignity upon a piece which hath no meaning. Swift, XIII., 
p. 70. 

II. Since the middle of the eighteenth century, the 
term " obscure " has often represented the indistinct- 
ness and suggestive mystery of the more profound prob- 
lems of human life ; images which produce sublime 
aesthetic effects because of their indistinctness. 

Your obscurity ... is that of too much meaning . . . not the 
dimness of positive darkness, but of distance. Lamb, II., p. 80. 
You ought to distinguish between obscurity residing in the uncom- 
monness of the thought, and that which proceeds from thoughts 
unconnected, and language not adapted to the expression of 
them. CoLEUiDGE, Letters, L, pp. 194, 195. 
The obscurity itself is a vital part of the work of art which deals 
not with a problem, but with a life. Dowden, Shak., etc., p. 127. 
Obsolete (I.) : Dry. to present. Hossetti, Lives, p. 88. 
Obvious (III.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 52. 
Occasional : Jef., Saints. Jeffrey, L, p. 208. 
Oceanic (XL) : Lan., Dow. 

Such an oceanic writer as Shakespeare. Dowden, Tr. & St., 
p. 252. 
Odd (IX.) : Har., Jef. to present. 

When words or images are placed in unusual juxtaposition rather 
than connection, and are so placed merely because the juxtapo- 
sition is unusual, we have the odd or grotesque. Colekidge, 
IY., p. 276. 
Offensive (XXII.) Z* : Swin. to present. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., 
p. 369. 

14 



210 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Old-fashioned (IX.) : Old-fashioned and thin. GossE, Life of Con- 

greve, p. 40. 
Operose (XII.) : Beut., Ros. 

Stiffness and stateliness and operoseness of style. Bentley, II., 
p. 84. 
Oppressive (XXII.) b : Jef. to present. 

Prosaically oppressive. Swinbuhne, Mis., p. 40. 
Opulent (XI.) b : De Quin. to present. 

Wilson's humour is broad, overwhelming, riotously opulent. De 
QUINCEY, III., p. 88. 
Oratio-obliqua: Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxiii. 

ORDER (II.). 

The term "order" derives its original significance 
and continually draws illustration from moral conduct 
and from external nature. It represents the concep- 
tion of things as subject to law and method, — part of 
these laws and methods being thought to be known, 
part of them being merely assumed to have an exist- 
ence. As employed in criticism, the unknown laws 
assumed by the term when referring to the sounds of 
a composition, are to be traced to the native sense of 
harmony in the ear. But when referring to the more 
highly developed and subtle characteristics of litera- 
ture, the validity of tlie known laws themselves has 
been constantly held in question, being continually op- 
posed by "nature," by passion, by imagination, by the 
general romantic and Gothic spirit. The term seems 
to be better adapted to scientific than to literary dis- 
cussions, and it has been employed but very little by 
the critics of the present century. 

All composition has three necessary particulars : Ordo, Junctura, 
Numems. Quintiltan, II., p. 21G. 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 211 

Passion requires a certain disorder of language, imitating the agi- 
tation and commotion of tlie soid. Loxgixus, p. 44. 

The ordering of things invented . . . called in Latin "' dispositio." 
Th. Wilsox, Rhet., p. 6. 

We ought to jom avoids together in apt order that the ear may 
delight m hearing the harmony. Id., pp. 175. 176. 

If you will be good scholars, and prafit well in the art of music, 
shut your fiddles m their cases, and look up to heaven. The or- 
der of the spheres . . . variety of seasons, etc. 1579. Gossox, 
p. 26. 

Ovid . . . pictui-es nature in disorder, with which the study and 
choice of words is inconsistent. 1666. Drydex, IX., pp. 96, 97- 

A due sentiment of morals is wanting, which alone can make us 
knowing in order and proportion. Shaftesbury, I., p. 218. 

An attempt to unite order and exactness of imagery with a subject 
formed on principles so professedly romantic and anomalous, is 
Hke giving Corinthian pillars to a Gothic palace. 177S. T. 
Waetox, Hist. Eng. Pr., p. 261. 

An orderly and sweet sentence, by gaining otir ear, conciliates our 
affections. 1S24. Laxdor, III., p. 146. 
Organic (Yll.) : Cole, to present. 

Living and organic style. Dowdex, St. in Lit., p. 151. 
Organ-like (X.) : Organ-like roll and majesty of numbers. Lowell, 

Prose, lY., p. 338. 
Oriental (XIX.) : Haz., Mac. 

Affected Orientalism of . . . Moore's style. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, 
p. 321.. 
ORIGINAL (XXIIL). 

The term "original" signified at first the "imitation 
of nature " as opposed to the imitation of authors. 
(See Imitation.) As referring to the author, the term 
is wholly negative in its meaning, denoting merely 
that the author criticised does not borrow his senti- 
ments or form of expression from anotlier author. As 
referring to the completed literary product, or to its 
effect upon the mind of the reader, originality denotes 



212 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS., 

that which is new and more or less unexpected, but 
which is at the same time an organic development of 
that which is already well known and familiar. 

The most original poetry is iu fact imitation, — imitation of nature. 
1762. Gibbon, IY., p. 144. 

Every author, as far as he is great and at the same time original, 
has had the task of creating the taste by which he is to be en- 
joyed. Wordsworth, II., p. 125. 

To admire on principle is the only way to imitate without loss of 
originality. Coleridge, III., p. 203. 

Original, masculine, and striking. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 205. 

All originality is relative. Every thinker is retrospective. Emer- 
son, Eep. Men, pp. 189, 190. 

An original author . . . modifies the influence of tradition, culture, 
and contemporary thought upon himself by some admixture of 
his own. Lowell, II., p. 84. 

Originality . . . that quality in a man which touches human nature 
at most points of its circumference. Lowell, IY., pp. 356, 357. 

Every great original writer brings into the world an absolutely 
new tiling, — his own personality. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 239. 
ORNAMENT (V.). 

Three periods may be distinguished in the history 
of the term " ornament." In early English criticism. 
As figurative almost everything which varied from ordi- 

falsification 

of the truth, nary conversational prose was characterized 

as an ornament, — amplification, comparisons, epithets, 

and proverbs in verse, verse itself, and poetical figures 

of speech. Poetical figures, in fact, and ornament were 

almost identical with each other, and the charge of 

untruthfulness, which was often brought against poetry 

and figurative language, applied with even greater force 

to ornament. 

Yerse is but an ornament and no cause to poetry. Sidney, p. 11. 
This ornament is given by figures and figurative speeches, which 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 2l3 

be the flowers, as it were, and colours, tliat a poet setteth upon 
his language of art. 1585. Puttenham, p. 150. 

figurative speech is a novelty of language. Id., p. 171. 

Eigures be the instruments of ornament in every language . . » 
and be occupied of purpose to deceive the ear and also the mind, 
drawing it from plainness and simplicity to a certain doubleness, 
whereby our talk is the more guileful and abusing. Id., p. 166. 

Many good sentences are spoken by Danus to shadow his knavery ; 
and written by poets as ornaments to beautify their work, and set 
their trumpery to sale without suspect. 1579. Gosson, p. 20. 

And for all that concerns ornaments of speech, similitudes, treasury 
of eloquence, and such like emptinesses, let it be utterly dismissed. 
Bacon, IV., p. 254. 

During the seventeenth and the greater pai^t of the 
eighteenth century no critical term reflected more 
clearly the false glitter of current* literature as refined 
than did the term " ornament." By means statement, 
of conventional epithets and brilliant figures of speech, 
the language of poetry had become utterly estranged 
from the language of conversational prose. The facts 
of life, it was thought, suitable for literary treatment, 
had already been treated of. It remained only to vary 
these facts by ingenious recombinations and by inge- 
nious methods of expression. This ingenuity, when held 
subservient to the sense of past literary attainment, 
produced in composition the quality of style known as 
ornament. 

Some words are to be culled out for ornament and colour, as we 

gather flowers to strew houses or make garlands. 1641. B. 

JoNsoN, Timber, p. 61. 
The episodes give it more ornament and more variety. 1693. . 

Dryden, XIII., p. 36. 
It is to be considered that the essence of verse is regularity, and 

its ornament is variety. 1781. S. Johnson, YIL, p. 346. 



214 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
" ornament " has been to a great extent a retrospective 
As elaborated term, referring to the literature of the sev- 
tionai fancies, enteenth and eighteenth centuries. As an 
active term it lies upon the extreme limits of positive 
and favorable use in criticism. The facts or subject- 
matter of literary representation, now thought to con- 
sist chiefly of feelings and conflicting motives and 
passions in the mind, require not ingenuity for their 
combination, but insight for their detection. The facts 
for literary representation are thus inexhaustible. These 
feelings and passions can often be expressed only by 
means of figurative language. Figurative language is 
thus in a sense the most direct method of statement 
possible for the facts to be represented. '' Ornament " 
has fallen into partial discredit during the present 
century, not because it indicates figurative language, 
but because it indicates figurative language which is 
labored and studied, and because it tends to denote 
the literary polishing of facts externally given. 

Poetical ornaments are foreign to the purpose ; for they only shew 

a man is not sorry. 1751. Gkay, II., p. 225. 
An ornament . . . an incongruity which would shock the intelli- 
gent reader, should the poet interweave any foreign splendor of 
his own with that which the passion naturally suggests. 1798. 
Wordsworth, II., p. 87. 
Ornate (V.) : Scott to present. 

Tennyson's Enoch Arden ... is ornate. Bagehot, Lit. St., II., 
p. 3.30. 
Ostentation (XIX): B. Jon. to present. 

Over-castigated (IV.): Over-castigated artificial literary tone of the 
period. IIossetti, Lives, p. 157- 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 215 

Over-charged: J. War. to present. J, Warton II., p. 205. 

Overflow: The term "overflow" to be used for these verses in which 
the sense is not concluded at the end of one line or of one couplet, 
but straggles on at its own free will, until it naturally closes. 
GossE, Erom Shak., etc., p. 6. 

Over-jewelled (V.) : Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., pp. 200, 201. 

Over-languaged : Keats was over-languaged at first. Lowell, Prose, 
I., p. 241. 

Over-mannered (IV.) : Over-mannered style of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 31. 

Overshining (V.): Swiuburne, Es. & St., p. 16. 

Overworked: Jeffrey, IL, p. 428. 

Overwrought : Blair to present. 

Ambitious and overwrought. Jeffeey, II., p. 476. 

Padding: Padding in Cooper's novels. Whipple, Am. Lit., p. 50. 

Painted (Y.) : Pope to present. 

This painted florid style. Pope, VIII., p. 219. 

Pale (V.): H. James to present. 

Pale, pretty washed out work. Brooke, Tennyson, p. 54. 

Pallid (V.): Elowerless and pallid. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 137. 

Palpable (XXII.) h : Tangible and palpable outline. Swinburne, 
Mis., p. 9. 

Panegyrical (XXI.) : Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, Mis., p. 74. 

Parade (V.): Without strain or parade. Bossetti, Lives, p. 391. 

Paradoxical (VIII.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, L, p. 166. 

Particular (YIII.) : J. War. to present. 

Used chiefly in connection with the theory of poetry. 
(See Poetical.) 

I. As characteristic of history rather than poetry. 

Clarendon's narration ... is stopped too frequently by particu- 
larities. S. Johnson, III., p. 83. 

II. As characteristic of the poetical as against the 
historical. 

In Homer and Shakespeare . . . every image is the particular and 
unalienable property of the person who uses it. J. Warton, L, 
p. 318. 



216 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

■ III. As representing merely the " picturesque " ele- 
ments of the poetical. 

Bj poetic expression I do not mean merely a vividness in particu- 
lars, but the right feeling which heightens or subdues a passage 
or a whole poem to the proper tone, and gives entireness to the 
effect. Lowell, Lit. Es., I., p. 245. 

PASSION(XIY.). 

Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
the term " passion " was used chiefly in two ways. 
As mental Oft^i^ ^l^G term was placed in antithesis 
excitation. ^^ u manners " and " characters," — passions, 
manners, and characters being the three chief features 
of dramatic representation. According to this use of 
the term, which was derived from ancient criticism, 
passion included anger, lust, mirth, pity, grief, fear, any 
emotion, in fact, or mental excitation of which human 
conduct gives evidence. 

Poets, after they have lost their power of depicting the passions, 
turn naturally to the delineation of character, e. g., the picture 
of the palace of Odysseus may be called a sort of comedy of 
manners. Longinus, pp. 20, 21. 

Passion contributes as largely to sublimity as the delineation of 
character to amusement. Id., p. 56. 

Under this general head of manners the passions are naturally in- 
cluded as belonging to the characters. 1679. Dryden, YI., 
p. 274. 

Sentiments which raise laughter can very seldom be admitted with 
any decency into an heroic poem, whose business is to excite 
passions of a much nobler nature. 1711- Addison, IIL, 
p. 188. 

Description of the external beauties of nature is usually the first 
effort of a young genius, before he hath studied manners and 
passions. 1756. J. Warton, L, p. 35, 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 217 

William Brown^s poetry is not without beauty ; but it is the beauty 
of mere landscape and allegory, without the manners and pas- 
sions that constitute human interest. 1819. Campbell, I., 
p. 218. 

Often, also, the term '^ passion " was employed to 

designate the primary desires and appetites, especially 

love between the sexes. This use of the 

As appetite, 
term is occasionally found even to the pres- 
ent time, chiefly in connection with the criticism of the 
novel. When thus employed " passion " was thought 
to be wholly active and impulsive, but also crude and 
unrefined. It might furnish a fit theme for literary 
treatment, but as to the active production of literature, 
it was thought to be unregulated and uncreative. When 
the native sense of beauty had come to be distinguished 
from artifi(3e, this use of the term " passion " was looked 
upon with less disfavor by the critics. 

Passions are spiritual rebels and raise sedition against the under- 
standing. 1611. B. Joxsox, Timber, p. 1. 

Any sudden gust of passion (as an ecstasy of love in an unex- 
pected meeting). 1668. Dryden, XV., p. 314. 

Thus by a little affectation in love matters, and with the help of a 
romance or novel, a boy of fifteen or a grave man of fifty may 
be sure to grow a very natural coxcomb, and feel the belle pas- 
sion in earnest. Shaftesbury, I., pp. 2, 3. 

Wit and passion are entirely incompatible. When the affections 
are moved, there is no place for the imagination. 1712. D. 
Hume, L, p. 212. 

By beauty I mean that quality or those quaHtics in bodies by 
which they cause love or some passion similar to it. 1756. 
Burke, I., p. 113. 

If the imagination be lively, the passions will be strong. J. War- 
ton, I., p. 102. 

By genius is meant those excellencies that no study or art can 



218 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

communicate, — such as . . . humour, passion, etc. 1758. 
Goldsmith, lY., p. 418. 

To take the passion out of a novel is something like taking the 
sunlight out of a landscape. 1874. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., 
p. 239. 

If a novel flatters the passions and exalts them above the princi- 
ples, it is poisonous. Ho wells, Grit. & Eiction, p. 95. 

Previous to the present century, it was occasionally 
recognized that passion in an author would lead to 
As sincerity earnestness, sincerity, and directness in his 

and direct- 
ness, methods of composition. Passion guarded 

against false ornaments and conceits ; still it was not 
considered as an integral part of the actual process of 
composition. It might be an ethical prerequisite for 
art, but it was not art, nor artistic ; it was too primi- 
tive and unrefined. 

But if mj faith, my hope, my love, my true intent. 

My liberty, my service vowed, my time and all be spent. (Dyer.) 

This is . . . vehement, swift, and passionate. Puttenham, p. 244. 

Raleigh is . . . lofty, insolent, passionate. Id,, p. 77. 

To which poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather pre- 
cedent, as being less subtle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, 
and passionate. 1644. Milton, Mis., 111., p. 473. 

No poet . . . can do anything great in his own way, without the 
imagination or supposition of a divine presence, which may raise 
him to some degree of this passion we are speaking of. Shaftes- 
bury, I., p. 39. 

Earl Percy's lamentation over his enemy is generous, beautiful, 
and passionate. 1710. Addison, 11., p. 378. 

Passion i-uns not after remote allusions. S. Johnson, YIL, p. 119. 

During the present century, especially during the 
early portion of it, passion has been very generally 
As intense po- Considered as one of the two or three essen- 
eucai feeling. ^|^| characteristics of poetry, imagination 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 219 

and rliytlim being the other requirements. Passion 
represents an ardent devotion to a principle, an ethical 
purpose, an gesthetic ideal. It is impulse and desire 
almost wholly disconnected from the primal appetites, 
and permeated, as it were, with the highest esthetic 
feelings and intuitions. 

The only qualities I can find in Dryden tliat are essentially poeti- 
cal are a certain ardour and impetuosity of mind, with an excel- 
lent ear. ... A great command of language he certainly has . . . 
but it is not poetical, being neither of the imagination nor of the 
passions ; I mean the amiable, the ennobling, or the intense pas- 
sions. 1S05. Wordsworth, III., p. 253. 

But passion — the all in all in poetry — is everywhere present, 
raising the low, dignifying the mean, and putting sense into 
the absurd. 1808. Lamb, Poems, P. & Es., p. 257. 

The elevation of tone arises from the strong mood of passion. 
1814. Scott, Life of Swift, p. 453. 

Imagination is as the immortal God which should assume flesh for 
the redemption of mortal passion. 1819. Shelley, II., p. 14. 

Poetry is . . . the natural impression of any object or event, by 
its vividness exciting an involuntary movement of imagination 
and passion. 1818. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, p. 1. 

M. Coppee's poetry . . . possesses sentiment, but hardly passion. 
DowDEN, St. in Lit., p. 421. 

The writings of the rom^antic school, of which the aesthetic poetry 
is an afterthought, mark a transition, not so much from the 
pagan to the mediaeval ideal, as from a lower to a higher degree 
of passion in literature. 1883. Pater, Ap., p. 214. 

But for positive passion, for that absolute fusion of the whole na- 
ture in one fire of sense and spirit. 1869. Swinburne, Es. & 
St., p. 307. 

"During the latter portion of the present century the 
use of the term "passion" in criticism has been very 
largely influenced by psychological thought as intense 
and discussion. Passion, considered as an ^^^^^' 



220 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

integral portion of the esthetic activity of the mind, 
is stimulated almost wholly by the mental imagery ; 
passion, as defining its relations to the other mental 
capacities, may be indeed identified in part with poet- 
ical feeling, but it represents also the more primal 
impulses, the sense of power, the appetites. Passion 
is often placed in antithesis to the imagination and the 
reason, and from this antithesis it obtains a more gen- 
eral meaning than it possessed in the early portion of 
the century. This meaning of the term is perhaps 
little more than its preceding use viewed from a dif- 
ferent standpoint ; but the critics have not as yet iden- 
tified the two uses with each other in actual criticism. 
The excellence of writing, wlietlier in prose or verse, consists in a con- 
junction of Reason and Passion. 1811. Wordsworth, II.,p. 65. 
Men act from passion, and we can only judge of passion by sym- 
pathy. 1826. Ha^litt, Plain Speaker, p. 59. 
Passion of any kind may become in some degree ludicrous when 
disproportioned to its exciting occasions. 184;8. De Quincey, 
XL, p. 69. 
Our passions in general are to be traced more immediately to the 
active part of our nature, to the love of power, or to strength of 
will. 1850. Hazlitt, Sk. & Essays, p. 344. 
Our very passion has become metaphysical, and speculates upon 

itself. Lowell, Prose Works, 11. , p. 136. 
A passion, of which the outlets are sealed, begets a tension of 
nerve, in which the sensible ^vorld comes to one with a reinforced 
brilliancy and relief, — all redness is turned into blood, all water 
into tears, Hence a wild, convulsed sensuousness in the poetry 
of the Middle Ages, in which the things of nature begin to play 
a strange, delirious part. 1883. Pater, Ap., p. 218. 
Pastoral (XXL) : Jef. to present. 

Kinds of poetry . . . heroic, scommatic, pastoral. Hobbes, IV., 

p. 444. 
Pastoral . . . which, not professing to imitate real life, requires no 
experience. S. Johnson, VIIL, p. 325. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 221 
PATHOS (XVII.). 

The term ''pathos" has, in general, always denoted 
the sympathy which is produced in the mind of the 
reader by the representation of feeling or as the excit- 

... -, ,. -r^ , ." ,, ing or stir- 

passion ni a literary production. Lntil the ring. 

latter portion of the eighteenth century, the repre- 
sentation of any passion whatever was said to be pa- 
thetic if only the representation were made sufficiently 
striking and impressive. It was, however, at the same 
time recognized that this impressiveness was more 
likely to be attained by the representation of the more 
violent and conflicting passions, — those which would 
lead to tragical situations and tragical resolutions of 
plot development. The critical value of the term 
'' pathos " during this early period of its history may 
be designated by some such series of expressions as 
"exciting," "stirring," "affecting," and "moving," — 
words which may express compassion and pity, but 
need not necessarily do so. 

The moving pathetical figure, Pottyposis. 15 SO. Hakvey, p. 21. 

Yirgil always fitteth his matter in hand witli words agreeable nnto 
the same affection, which he expresseth, as in his Tragical excla- 
mations, what pathetical speeches he frameth ! 15 S6. Webee, 
p. 46. 

The most delightfid beauty, the most engaging and pathetic, is 
that which is drawn from real life, and from the passions. 

SlIAPTESBURY, I., p. 105. 

Most pathetic and most interesting, and by consequence the most 
agreeable. 1742. D. Hume, L, p. 264. 

The subhme and the pathetic are the two chief nerves of all genu- 
ine poesy. Wliat is there transceuden tally sublime or pathetic 
in Pope ? 1756. J. Warton, I., p. vi. 



222 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Eowe's genius was rather delicate and soft than strong and pa- 
thetic. Id., p. 268. 

Cato wants action and pathos ; the two hinges on which a just 
tragedy ought to tarn. 1756. Id., p. 257- 

Whence it conies to pass that the action, having an essential dig- 
nity, is always interesting, and by the simplest management of 
the poet becomes in a supreme degree pathetic. 1751. Hurd, 
II., p. U. 

Three kinds of pathos : — 

1. Sympathy for humble pity and contrition. 

2. Sympathy for distresses of love. 

3. Another kind of pathos arises from magnanimity in distress, 

which, managed by a skilful hand, will touch us even where 
we detest the character wliich suffers. Geay, I., p. 400. 
As human passions did not enter the world before the fall, there is, 
in Paradise Lost, little opportunity for the pathetic. 

During the present century the term " pathos " has 
occasionally indicated a pensive meditation, a sympa- 
As meditative ^1^^^^^ Contemplation of human life in gen- 
compassion. ^^,^|^ ^ brooding Over the broader traits of 
actual life in view of ideals which react little or none 
into actual conditions, and which might or might not 
be applicable to any special condition or event. 

A pathetic reflection, properly introduced into a descriptive poem, 

will have greater force and beauty, and more deeply interest a 

reader, than a moral one. 1756. J. Warton, I., p. 32. 
There is a meditative as well as a liuman pathos ... a sadness that 

has its seat in the depths of reason. 1S02. Woiidswoeth, II., 

p. 128. 
To give to universally received truths a pathos and spirit, which 

shall readmit them into the soul like revelations of the moment. 

1811. Id., p. 63. 
Wordsworth has a meditative pathos, a union of deep and subtle 

thought with sensibility. 1817- Colekidge, III., p. 493. 
Pathetic meditation. M. Arnold, Mixed Essays, p. 441. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 223 

Usually, however, the pathetic refers to concrete and 
specific events. From the standpoint of an ideal or of 
ideals, the mind dwells upon the essential ^^ compassion 
incongruities in these specific facts and ^^^ ^^^* 
events, and sympathy and compassion go out to those 
characters or persons whose fortunes aiKl destinies are 
thus affected. Pathos is sympathy for the passions and 
feelings represented in a literary production, wlien those 
passions and feelings are displayed in a manner which 
the reader from his experience must regard as destruc- 
tive of natural growth and development, and when his 
sympathy and interest are made to centre upon these 
imperfect conditions rather than upon their possible 
amelioration and improvement. 

Yet so it is, that, tliougli the feehugs of pathos and ridicule seem 
so widely different, a certain tincture of the pitiable makes comic 
distress more irresistible. 1S19. Campbell, I., p. 71. 

Man is the only animal that langlis and weeps ; for he is the only 
animal that is struck with the difference between what things 
are and what they ought to be. 1819. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. 
Writers, p. 1. 

But humour in men of genius is always allied to pathos. IS 11. 
WiLsox, YII., p. 7S. 

Straightforward pathos . , . too sternly touched to be effusive and 
tearful. Lowell, IY., p. 260. 
Pedantic (VII.) : Dekker to present. 

I. An inappropriate elaboration and display of 
learning. 

Pedantry is the unseasonable ostentation of learning. S. Johx- 

sox. III., p. 3U. 
If by pedantry is meant that minute knowledge which is derived 

from particular sciences and studies, in opposition to the general 



224 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

notions supplied by a wide survey of life and nature, Cowley 
certainly errs by introducing pedantry far more frequently tlian 
Tasso. Id., VII., p. 47- 

II. More usually an inappropriate conscious elabo- 
ration of any kind. 

Stiffest pedantry and conceit. Shaftesbury, I., p. 202. 
Pedantry consists in tlie use of words unsuitable to the time, place, 

and company. Coleridge, III., p. 272. 
Pedantry, wliicli consisted in unnecessary, and perhaps unintelli- 
gible references to ancient learning, was afterwards combiued 
with other artifices to obtain the same eud. IIallam, III., 
p. 240. 
Pedestrian (XYITI.) : Saints., Gosse. 

Pedestrian, unimaginative, level, neutral. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., 
IIP, p. 73. 
Peerless (XXII.) a : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 45. 
Pellucid (IIP): Hal, Low. 

Calm and pellucid as mountain tarns. Lowell, Lat. Lit. Es., p. 36. 
Penetrative (XX.) h : M. Arn. to present. 

Penetrative and sympathetic imagination. Lowell, Lat. Lit. Es., 

I., p. 243. 
The tender, penetrating fiction of Richardson. Gosse, Eighteenth 

Century, p. 3S5. 
A penetrativeness half pleasurable, half melancholy. Lowell, 
' 0. E. D., p. 20. 
Pensive (XIV.) : T. War. to present. 
Perfect (XXII.) a : Eymer to present. 

There is hardly anything more exquisite and more perfect than 
history. Kymer, 1st Pt., pp. 57, 58. 
Perfume : The perfume of the delicately chosen phrase. Gosse, Life 

of Congreve, p. 135. 
Periodic (IP): De Quin., Min. 
Perplexed (II.) : Dry. to present. 
Personal: Swin. Gosse, Prom Shale., etc., p. 56. 
Personality : In our approach to the poetry, we necessarily approach 
the personality of the poet. H. Browning, Browning Society 
Papers, 1881-84. Pt. I, p. 5. 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 225 

Perspicacity iJII.) : Camp, to present. 

This botauizing perspicacity. Campbell, p. 116. 

Perspicacity aud perspicuity. Swixburxe, A St. of B. J., p. 116. 
PERSPICUITY (III.). 

••Perspicuity" is the technical expression for clear- 
ness in composition, being, according to rhetorical 

theorr, one of the three or four cardinal From gram- 
matical con- 
requirements for style. In early English stmctLon. 

criticism it resulted chiefly from the mere choice of 

words, and from the simplest elements of grammatical 

construction. Literary works, especially translations, 

were characterized as perspicuous. Avhich. to us at 

least, are hopelessly vague and obscure. 

I have delivered mine author's meaning with as much perspicuity 

as so mean a scholar . . . was well able to perform. Thos. 

Newtox (Pref. to Tr. of Seneca), Spenser Society, XLIIL. p. 2. 
Frame your style to perspicuity and to be sensible ; for the haughty, 

obscure verse doth not much delight, and the verse that is too 

easy is like a tale of a roasted horse. Gascoigne. p. 36. 

During the greater part of the seventeenth and eigh- 
teenth centuries, perspicuity was thouglit to depend 
chiefly upon an orderly and methodic ar- ^^^^ logical 
rangement of the sentences and of the ^o^^^^^^^^- 
thought expressed in a composition. This is perhaps 
the more common use of the term even up to the pres- 
ent time. 

Order helps much to perspicuity, as confusion hurts. 1611. B. 

Joxsox, Timber, p. 63. 
In the better notion of wit considered as propriety, surely method 

is necessaiy for perspicuity and harmony of parts. 1707- 

Pope, VI./p. 31. 
Sheffield . . . had the perspicuity and eleeance of an historian, but 

not the fire and fancy of a poet. 17S1. S. Johxson, TIL, p. 1S5. 
15 



226 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Occasionally, however, — especially in the present 
century, — perspicuity evidently arises chiefly from the 
From mental ^i^i^iiiess of the mental imagery employed, 
imagery. rather than from the merely grammatical and 
logical features of a composition. 

Have images of nature in the memory distinct and clear ... a 
sign of this is perspicuity, propriety, and decency. 1650. 
HoBBES, IV., p. 453. 
The natural and perspicuous expression, which spontaneously rises 

to the mind. 1821. Macaulay, IV., p. 451. 
Perspicuity, — the only question is, Will it tell? Bagehot, I., 
p. 31. 
Persuasive (XXII.) b : Gosse. 

The poets were from the beginning the best persuaders. Putten- 
HAM, p. 25. 
Pert (XVIII.) : Gray to present. 

Pert familiarity. Jeffb-ey, I., p. 266. 
Petty (XI.) : Hunt, Stephen. Hunt, Wit & Humour, p. 115. 
PHILISTINISM (XXII.) h : Car. to present. 

Primarily, and in theory, the term indicates insensi- 
bility to beauty. In actual criticism the term indicates 
a lack of that which the critic considers as most fun- 
damental or essential in literary composition. Thus 
'' Philistinism " has represented : — 

Insensibility to propriety. 1781. S. Johnson, VIII., p. 29. 

Utilitarianism. Caulyle, I., p. 58. 

Lack of imagination. Lowell, II., p. 359. 

Insensibility to beauty. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., pp. 162-67. 

Want of " openness to ideas.^' Id., p. 176. 

The apparent rhetorical truth of things. Id., p. 301. 

Indifference to the higher intellectual interests. Stephen, III., 

p. 306. 
Lack of the realistic spirit. Howells, Crit & Fiction, p. 107. 
Lack of " exaltation of sentiment and thought." Satntsbuhy, Es. 

in Eng. Lit., p. 88. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 22? 

Philosophical (XX.) h : Newton, TTil. 

Gravity of philosophical seuteuces ... in Seneca. T. Netvton, 
Spenser Society, Vol. XLIII., p. 2. 
Photographic (III ) : Saints., Gosse. 

Photographically minute. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 128. 
Picaresque (XXI.) : Hal., Mac. 

The picaresque or rogue style, iu which the adventures of the low 
and rather dishonest part of the community are made to furnish 
amusement for the great. Hall am, L, pp. 248, 2i9. 
Pictorial (III.) : Hunt to present. Recently much in use. 

Artists err in the confounding of poetic with pictorial subjects. 

Lamb, Mrs. Leicester's School, p. 312. 
Gray is pictorial in the highest sense of the term, much more than 

imaginative. Lowell, Lat. Lit. Es., p. 17. 
That double command at once of the pictorial and the musical ele- 
ments of poetry in which no English poet is Spenser's superior. 
Saintsbtjey, Hist. Eng. Lit , p. 86. 
PICTURESQUE (XVI.). 

Three periods may be distinguished in the history 
of the term " picturesque." Previous to the present 
century, occasionaUy to the present time, it As striMng 

, . , . . -, pictorial 

represented mental imagery which was vivid, effects. 

full of color, and more or less suggestive of strength 

and power, — images which were "fit for a picture," 

a picture, however, always " in the Gothic style of 

painting." 

Mr. Philipps has two lines which seem to me what the Erench call 
very picturesque : — 

All hid in snow, in bright confusion lie, 
And with one dazzling waste confuse the eye. 

1712. Pope, VI., p. 178. 
Such circumstances as are best adapted to strike the imagination 
by lively pictures . . . the selection of which chiefly constitutes 
true poetry. 1756. J. Wahtox, I., p. 26. 

His sea-green mantle waving with the wind. 
This is . . . highly picturesque. Id., p. 21. 



228 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

In these lone walks (tlieir days eternal bound), 
These moss-grown domes, with s'pirey turrets crowned, 
Where awful arches make the noonday night, 
And the dim windows shed a solemn light. (Pope.) 
The epithets are picturesque. Id., p. 313. 
There is great picturesque humour in the following lines : — 
He buffeted the Breton about the cheeks. 
That he looked like a lantern all liis life after. 

1778. T. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 187. 

During the early portion of the present century the 

picturesque represented a high degree of contrast in 

As contrast- the poetical imagery, which, liowever, by 
ing: pictorial . i t -n 

effects. suggestion could still be taken up into an 

aesthetic unity, — a unity higher than that of pictorial 
effects. 

The picturesque contrasts of Character in Othello are almost as 
remarkable as the depth of the passion. 1817. Hazlitt, III., 
p. 31. 

The picturesque depends chiefly on the principle of discrimination 
or contrast. ... It runs imperceptibly into the fantastical and 
grotesque. 1819. Id., Table Talk, pp. 448, 419. 

How significant, how picturesque. 1828. Macaulay, L, p. 142. 

Spenser's descriptions are exceedingly vivid . . . not picturesque 
in the true sense of the word, but composed of a wonderful 
series of images, as in our dreams. Coleridge, IV., p. 249. 

In the Greek drama one must conceive the presiding power to be 
Death ; in the English, Life. What Death ? What Life ? That 
sort of death or life locked up or frozen into everlasting slumber, 
which we see in sculpture ; that sort of life, of tumult, of agi- 
tation, of tendency to sometliing beyond, which we see in paint- 
ing. The picturesque, in sliort, domineers over English tragedy ; 
the sculpturesque or the statuesque over the Grecian. 1838. 
De Quincey, X., p. 315. 

Picturesque : the ancients had neither the word or the thing which 
it represents. Id., pp. 308, 309. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 229 

More recently the term has occasionally been given 
a somewhat unfavorable meaning. When vivid con- 
trasts are made for the sake of the contrasts, ^^g ^^^.^ pj^._ 
and not for the purpose of bringing into re- ^^^^ ^^^^^^' 
lief their ulterior unity, when liighly colored images 
are unnecessarily scattered throughout a literary pro- 
duction, then the picturesque comes to be regarded as 
a sensuous play upon mere color and form, as some- 
thing which negates the higher ethical and sesthetic 
purposes of art. 

Carlyle's . . . innate love of the picturesqne ... is only another 
form of tlie sentimentalism he so scoffs at, perhaps as feeling it 
a weakness in himself. 1S66. Lowell, II., p. 92. 

TVliere he is imaginative, it is in that lower sense which the pov- 
verty of onr language, for want of a better word, compels us 
to can picturesque. 1SG8. Id., III., p. 170. 

A mere luxurious dreaming, where the beautiful very speedily de- 
generates into the pretty or picturesque. 1874. Stephen, 
Hrs. in a Lib., I., p. 121. 

They have come to please us at last as thino:s picturesque, being 
set in relief against, the modes of our diiierent age. IS 78. 
Pater, Ap., p. 117. 
Piquant : Car. to present. 
Pithey (XYI.) : T. Wil. to present. 

Much in use in early criticism. Full of meaning; 
pointed and sententious. 

Sensiblv, pithilv, bitinglv. T. Newtox, Spenser Societv, XLIIL, 

p. 3.' 
Pithey and wise sentences. Webbe, p. 44. 
Pith and point. Lowell, Prose, IL, p. 221. 
Compactly and pithily. Id., Lat. Lit. Es., p. 1. 
Placid (XIX.) : Hunt to present. 

Placid and decorous. Gosse, Prom Shak., etc., p. 57* 



230 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Plagiarism: Jef., Poe. 

Plagiarist or imitator. Jeffrey, IL, p. 245. 
PLAIN (III.). 

The term "plain" refers chiefly to the use of words 
and of mental imagery in composition. Until about 
From gram- ^^^^ middle of the eighteenth century, '' plain " 
logicafcS? denoted such a choice and arrangement of 
words as to make evident at once to the 
reader the thought intended. No distinction was per- 
haps drawn by the critics between the grammatical 
and logical means for the attainment of this purpose. 
The imagination was considered as a hindrance to 
plainness, producing in the composition a false glitter 
and ornamentation which rendered tlie thought difficult 
and obscure. 

Easy and plain composition. T. Wilson, Eliet , p. 178. 

The matter is good, the words proper and ])laiu; jet the sense is 

hard and dark. 1568. Asciiam, III., p. 269. 
Plain sense. 1586. Webbe, p. 46. 
He affects plainness to cover his want of imagination. 1668. 

Dryden, XV., p. 288. 

Since about the middle of the eighteenth century 
imagination and plainness have not been considered 
From mental ^^ necessarily opposed to each other. Plain- 
iSicafcon^^ ness has indicated an unornamented method 
of statement, obtained chiefly by distinct- 
ness of imagery and unsuperfluousness of language. 
During the early portion of the present century the 
term was very frequently employed in opposition to the 
conventional adornments of the eioiiteenth-centurv lit- 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 231 

erature : more recently tlie term lias been used chiefly 
in connection with the criticism of prose literature. 

Plain, blunt, and unartilicial style of so rude an age. ISOS. 

Scott, Ed. of Drjden, VIII., p. 1. 
Works of imagination should be written in a plain language. 1S30. 

Coleridge, YI., p. o26. 
In short, the merit of De Foe's narrative bears a direct proportion 
to the intrinsic merit of a plain statement of the facts. Ste- 
phen, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 47. 
Plaintive (XIY.) : Brv., Swin. 
Platitude (XII.) : Poe to present. 

Too great proportion of sentence is . . . an encouragement to 
sonorous platitude. Saintsbuky, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxriii. 
Plausible (YIII.) : Plausible description of physical wonders ... in 

Gulliver. Jeffrey, I., p. 213. 
Playful (XYIII.) : Jef. to present. In considerable use. 
Light and playful. Landok, III., p. 1:71. 

Richter's satire is . . . playful . . . never bitter, scornful, or 
mahgnant. De Quince y, XI., p. 271. 
Pleading (XXII.) ^: Pleading tones. Whipple, Es. & Rev., p. 83. 
Pleasantry (XYII.) : J. War. to present. 

The ''flash" of wit turned especially toward social 

life, and giving to incidents and customs a more or less 

ludicrous appearance. 

A gross pleasantry or profane witticism. Scott, Life of Dryden, 

p. 61. 
The humour, and in general the pleasantry of our nation has very 

frequently a sarcastic and even misanthropic character, which 

distinguishes it from the mere playfulness and constitutional 

gaiety of our Prench neighbors. Jeffrey, I., p, 131. 
Yoltaire's wit ... is at all times mere logical pleasantry, a gaiety 

of the head, not of the heart. Carltle, II., p. 167. 
Plebeian (Y.) : Locke's style is bald, dull, and plebeian. Saixts- 

BURY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxiv. 
Plentiful (XYI.) : Plautus is more plentiful, Terence more pure and 

proper. Ascham, III., p. 247. 



232 A UlSTOUY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Pleonastic : Jef., Poe. 
POETICAL (XX1J.)6. 

Until within the first half of the cigliteenth centiin , 
" poetical," as a critical term, usually possessed a sig- 
nificance which was quite at variance with the general 
theoretical conception of poetry. In theory, poetry was 
of divine inspiration. 

Poesy ill his ])crfcction cannot grow but by some divine inspira- 
tion; the Phitonics eall it luror. Putteniiam, p. 2U. 

There was never a great poet without a larger portion of tlic divine 
inspiration. B. Jonson, Timber, \). 70. 

In actual criticism the poetical usually denoted an 
As emotional enthusiastic and fantastical falsilication of 

falsification 

of truth. truth. 

To elevate the style, illustrate the subject by nieta})hor and epi- 
thets, guarding, however, against what savours of poetry. Aris- 
totle, Rhet., p. 222. 

Poetry is the language of enthusiasm. Id., p. 226. 

Those who express themselves with this poetic air, produce by 
their want of taste both the ridiculous and the frigid. Id., 
p. 216. 

Some will be ... so fine, so poetical . . . that everybody else 
shall think them meeter for a lady's chamber than for an earnest 
matter. T. Wilson, Rhet., p. 176. 

Poetical . . . and fantastical. Puttenham, p. 31. 

Poetical fancies and furies. B. Jonson, L, p. 210. 

What a base humour is this in you poetical needy brains. 1611. 
In J. B. Harleian Miscellany, IX., p. 201. 

Since the early portion of the eighteenth century, 
the theory of the " poetical," and the actual use of the 
term in criticism, have usually been in close agreement 
with each other. Until the middle of the eighteenth 
century, the poetical in theory was the variation and 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 233 

ornamentation of truth in order to make it more pleas- 
ing and acceptable to the reader. The fancy produced 
the variation ; reason and understanding held to the 
truth, and furnished for the poetical activity its motive 
or incentive, — the desire to teach. 

Poetry commonly exceeds the measure of nature, joining at pleas- 
ure things which in nature would never have come together. 
Bacon, IV., p. 292. 

Poesy serveth ... to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation. 
Id., Adv. of L., p. 30. (Oxford^ 1891.) 

Poetry speaks to the understanding; painting to the sense. B. 
JoNSON, Timber, p. 49. 

The great art of poets is either the adorning and beautifying of 
truth, or the inventing, pleasing, and probable fictions. Dry- 
den, XV., p. 408. 

No man can be a true poet who writes for diversion only. These 
authors should be considered as versifiers and witty men rather 
than as poets. 1710. Pope, VI., p. 116. 

With such a theory of poetry, the '^ poetical" was 
little used as a critical term. When it was .^ ^„ _ ^ 

As an orna- 

thus employed, it denoted language which ^catioV^^^" 
was figurative, ornamented, and elevated. 

The diction is poetical. 1699. Dryden, XL, p. 239. 

TuUy and Demosthenes spoke often figuratively but not poetically, 

and the very figures of oratory are vastly different from those of 

poetry. 1726. Pope, VIII.] p. 218. 

During the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
the poetical, both in theory and in actual criticism, was 
closely related to the picturesque. The po- j^g intensity of 
etical was whatever in literary representa- ^vidS^S^^f^^ 
tion stirred and excited the emotions. This "^^^^^ 
was thought more likely to be attained by particularity 



234 A HISTORY OF EXGLISII CRITICAL TERMS. 

and vividness. Poetry, however, was considered as tlie 
product of an imagination which faded away with the 
growth of science and knowhidge. It was not clearly 
defined whether the ethical significance of poetry in- 
heres in the poetical process itself, or whether it con- 
sists in a didactic purpose foreign to the nature of poetry 
as such. 

Poetical, that is, highly figurative expression. 1710. lluiU), [., 

p. 102. 
Eour classes of poets : — 

1. Sublime and Pathetic, e. g., Spenser, Shakespeare, MiltcMi. 

2. True poetic genius in moderate degree, — moral, ethical, 

panegyrical poets, e. g., Dryden, Addison, Cowley. 

3. Men of wit, of elegant taste, and lively fancy, e. g., Butler, 

Swift, Domic. 

4. Mere versifiers, e. g., Pitt, Sandys, etc. 1756. J. Wakton, 

I., p. vii. 
A minute and particular enumeration of circumstances, judiciously 

selected, is what chiefly discriminates poetry from history. Id., 

p. 47. 
True poetry, after all, cannot well subsist, at least is never so 

striking, without a tincture of enthusiasm. Id., p. 317. 
Words are divided into three classes : — 

1. Those which represent many simple ideas united by nature, 

e. g., man, sky, etc. 

2. Those representing one of such simple ideas, e. g., blue. . . . 

3. Those representing a union of the two former by the mhid, 

e. g., virtue, magistrate, etc. 
The latter class call up uo definite image in the mind, and are 
the especial expression of the emotions, and hence of po- 
etry. 1756. Burke, L, p. 170. 
As knowledge and learning increase, poetry begins to deal less in 

imagination. 1778. T. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 310. 
One of the great sources of poetical delight is . . . the power of 
presenting pictures to the mind. 17S1. S. Johnson, YIl., 
p. 44. 
That cannot be unpoetical witli which all are pleased. Id., p. 129. 



.1 HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 235 

During the present century poetry lias usually been 
regarded not so much as an intuition of obscure rela- 
tions which afterward develop into knowl- as intensity of 
edge, and thus cease to be poetry, as the imagination, 
culmination and unification of knowlcdu'C in feelino; 
wliich always tends more or less directly toward action. 
Ethics and the poetical process thus become fundamen- 
tally associated with each other. Poetry, facing toward 
conduct instead of toward knowledge, becomes inti- 
mately related with passion, and not with the reason 
or understanding. Imagination gives a new sense of 
beauty ; the first impulsive wish to realize this is poetic 
passion. Together imagination and passion constitute 
what in the present century has generally been regarded 
as the poetical. Since the rhythmical qualities of po- 
etry have come to be referred to the mind for expla- 
nation rather than to the mechanism of verse, rhythm 
in theory has often been included as an integral portion 
of the conception of the poetical. In actual criticism, 
however, this perhaps does not hold true to an equal 
extent. 

As the sensible world is inferior in dignity to the rational soul, 

Poesy seems to bestow on human nature those things wliich 

history denies to it. Bacon, IY., p. 315. 
Poetry is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance 

of all science. 1798. Wordsworth, II., p. 91. 
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. Id., p. 82. 
It is not language that is in the highest sense of the word poetical, 

being neither of the imagination nor of the passions. 1805. Id., 

III., p. 253. 
Passion the all in all in poetry. 1808. Lamb, P. P. & Es., p. 257. 
Impassioned poetry is an emanation of the moral and intellectual 



236 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

part of our nature as well as of the sensitive. ISIS. Hazlitt, 
Eng. Poets, p. 8. 

Poetry ... is the result of tlie general harmony of all our facul- 
ties. 1828. Carlyle, II., p. 18. 

Humour is properly the exponent of low things ; that which first 
renders them poetical to the mind. Id., III., p. 97. 

Everything is poetry whicli is not mere sensation. We are poets 
at all times when our minds are makers. 1832. Wilson, VI., 
p. 109. 

No poetry can have the function of teaching. . . . Poetry, or any 
one of the fine arts (all of whicli alike speak through the genial 
nature of man and his excited sensibilities) can teach only as 
nature teaches, as the sea teaches, as forests teach, as infancy 
teaches, viz., by deep impulse, by hieroglyphic suggestion. 
1848. De Quincey, XI., p. 88. 

And by poetic expression I do not mean merely a vividness in 
particulars, but the right feeling which heightens or subdues a 
passage or a whole poem to the proper tone, and gives entire- 
ness to the eiFect. 1854. Lowell, Lit. Es., I., p. 245. 

The essential mark of poetry is that it betrays in every word instant 
activity of mind, shown in new uses of every fact and image, in 
preternatural quickness or perception of relations. 1876. E^i- 
ERSON, Let. & Soc. Aims, p. 22. 

Genius is mainly an affair of energy, and poetry is mainly an affair 
of genius. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 50. 

Poetry at all times exercises two distinct functions : it may reveal, 
it may unveil to every eye, the ideal aspects of common things 
... or it may actually add to the number of motives poetic 
and uncommon in themselves, by the imaginative creation of 
things that are ideal from their very birth. 1886. Pater, Ap., 
p. 242. 
Poetic Justice: Rymer, S. John. 

Poetical justice requires that the satisfaction be complete and full, 
ere the malefactor goes off the stage, and nothing left to God 
Almighty and another world. Hymer, 1st Pt., p. 26. 

In striking contrast to Shakespeare . . . Middleton has no kind of 
poetic morality in the sense in which the term poetical justice is 
better known. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 268. 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 23 < 

Poetic License: This poetical liceuse is a shrewd fellovr, aud coveretli 
many faults iu a verse ... it tumetli all things at pleasure. 
Gascoigne, p. 37. 

Poignant (XVII): Drv. to present. 

Stimulating ; breezy ; more or less amusing, — the re- 
sult of a keen sense of congruity in the more external 
and transitory relations of things, combined with spriglit- 
liness and a certain amount of energy. 

Poignancy and propriety. J. Wartox, I., p. 330. 

Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine. (Pope.) 
This is . . . too poignant and transitory. AYordswokth, IL, 

p. 63. 
His wit is poignant thongh artificial. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writ- 
ers, p. 163. 
An obsoleteness of language which gives a kind of poignancy. 
Hallam, Lit. Hist., L, p. 35. 
Point (V.): Dry. to present. 

Point and antithesis. J. "Wartox, II,, p. 396. 
Love of conceit and point. Scott, Ed. of Dryden, IX., p. 83. 
Poised (II.) : Pos. Brooke, Tennyson, p. 114. 
Polished (V.): Whetstone to present. 

Refinement considered wholly as a product, and as 
attained by means of conscious effort, by careful and 
repeated revision. 

Polished from barbaronsness. Webbe, p. 18. 

Chaucer is a rough diamond and must be polished ere he shines. 

Dryden, XL, p. 233. 
The high polish of Prench poetry is all that keeps out decay. 

Lowell, III., p. 158. 
Polite (V.)- Jef. to present. 

The use of banter never disjoins banter itself from politeness, from 

felicity. M. Auxold, Cr. Es., 1st S., pp. 60-67- 
Pomp (XIX.) &: Daniel to present. 

Wise men would be glad to find a little sense couched under all 

these pompous words. Deydex, YL, p. 2 SO. 



238 A II I ST (J J n OF EX (; LIS II rniricAL terms. 

Drydcii . . . Iiad a pomp wliicli . . . Ijccainc poinpousucss iii his 
imiiatoi's. Lowell, 111., p. 1S5. 
Ponderous (XI.) : Low. to present. 

Ponderosity is not the note of Greek eloquence. Yet two great 
poets — Pindar and jEsehyhis — revealed the possibilities of a 
massive Greek style. Symonds, Es., Sp. & Sug., p. 194. 
Poor (XIL): Jef. to present. 

Tanicncss and poorness. Jeffrey, L, p. 167. 
Possibility (VIIL): Wlictstonc to .1. Wartoii. 

Always associated either with ])r()l)ahility or with 
nature considered historically. (^8ee ''Probability'' and 
"Nature.") 

Ariosio's adventures are witlioul the compass of nature and jmssi- 
bility. DiiYDEN, XIII., p. 15. 
Potent (XIL): Ros. to pn^sent. 

Mai^ical potency. Possetti, Lives, p. 388. 
Pothery (XV.): Sliakrsprare's sonnets are hot and pothery. Lan- 

1)0 R, IV., p. 51-2. 
Poverty (XIL) : llymer* Jef. to present. 

Baldness and poverty of language. Wiiiri'LE, Es. & Rev., XL, 
p. 194. 
POWER (XIL) : Jef. to present. 

Much in use in the present century. Sustained force 
or energy, thought of as inhering for tlic most part in 
the composition itself, rendering it effective and moving. 

The Bible is not the poetry of form, but of power. 1818. Haz- 
LiTT, Eng. Poets, p. 22. 

Space, again, what is it in most men's minds ? The lifeless form 
of the world without ns ; a postulate of the geometrician, with 
no more vitality or real existence to their feelings than the 
square root of two. But if Milton has been able to inform this 
empty theatre, peopling it with Titanic shadows ... so that 
from being a thing to inscribe with diagrams, it has become 
under his hands a vital agent on the human mind, — I presume 
that I may justly express the tendency of Paradise Lost by 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 239 

saying tliat it communicates power ... as opposed to tliat 
which communicates knowledge. De Quincey, X., p. 49. 
Our knowledge of power comes from our own personality. . . . 
Our conception of power cannot be explained by the philosophy 
which derives all knowledge from sensation and reflection. 
Fleming, Vocabulary of Philosophy, pp. 316, 317. 

Preciosity: Saints. Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 12. 

Precision (IIL): J. War. to present. Much in use. 

I. Exact; clear cut in outline and in detail; refer- 
ring more usually to the mental imagery, occasionally 
to the language and logical construction. 

Precise ballance. T. Newtox, Spenser Society, XLIII., p. 2. 
Milton's figures haye all the elegance and i)recisi()n of a Greek 

statue. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, p. 80. 
Sometimes in painting, and sometimes in poetry, an object should 

not be quite precise. Landor, III., ]). 444. 

II. Occasionally the term denotes accuracy to fact. 

The final end of all style is precision, y^racily of utterance, truth 
to the thing to be presented. Symgnds, Es., Sp. & Sug., p. 242. 
Pregnant (XVI.) : Camden to present. 

I. In early criticism the term indicated certain ca- 
pacities of the author, fertile device and prolific in- 
vention. 

Our poets . . . are pregnant both in witty conceits and deyices. 

Camden, p. 337. 
Peele's pregnant dexterity of wit and manifold dexterity of iuyen- 

tion. 1589 Nash, in Literaria Centuria, II., p. 238. 

II. In the present century the term denotes an allu- 
sive, suggestive, and. perhaps impassioned method of 
writing, which fully calls out the sympathies and in- 
terests of the reader, stimulating in him further thought 
and feelino;. 



240 A HISTORY OF EyULlSII CRITICAL TERMS. 

So pregnant with feeling and reflection. Wilson, Y., p. 395. 
Pregnant with important truths. Id., p. 366. 
The style is what was called pregnant, leaving much to be filled 
up by the reader's reflection. Hallam, Lit. Hist., TIL, p. 378. 
Milton's . . . pregnant, allusive way. M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., 
]). 200. 
Preposterous (XX.) : Jcf., Gosse. 

Childish and preposterous. Jeffrey, I., p. 212. 
Pretentious (XIX.) ^: Kos. to present. 

Pretense, an inflation of mind, and overstrained use . . . of tem- 
porary catch words. Rossetti, Lives, p. 390. 
Pretty (V.): Camden to present. 

The term denotes a lii<i'hly elal)orated form of ele- 
gance and ornament ; conceits and images which please 
by their constructive ingenuity, but not by their force 
of meaning, fitness, or literary significance. With tlie 
suffix ''ness" or "ish," the term is uniformly employed 
in an unfavorable sense ; with the suffix " ly," in a fa- 
vorable sense. The term " pretty " represents one of 
the very lowest qualities of literary composition. 

Prettily handled. Webbe, p. 55. 

Crashaw's thoughts are . . . pretty, but oftentimes far-fetched. 

Pope, VI., p. 117. 
Too much prettiness and too modern an air. J. Wahton, I., p. 11. 
Walsh . . . seldom rises higher tlian to be pretty. S. Johnson, 

VIL, p. 244. 
A mere luxurious dreaming, where the beautiful very speedily de- 
generates into the pretty or picturesque. Stephen, I., p. 121. 
Prim (IV.): Whip., Gosse. 

A prim grace of construction. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 265. 
Prismatic : His style is prismatic. It unfolds the colours of the 

rainbow. Hazlitt, Age of El., p. 233. 
PROBABILITY (VIII.) . 

The critics have often distinguished in theory be- 
tween particular and general probability. Particular 



A HISTOBY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 2-il 

probability refers to single detached events, and is to 
be determined by observation and the laws of evidence. 
General probability is the determhiation of as general 

\ correspondence 

belief ni the actual occurrence or any event to past events, 
from its general correspondence to other events which 
are well known. In actual criticism, particular prob- 
ability does not perhaps occur. Until about the middle 
of the eighteenth century, the term uniformly indicated 
general probability, — a similarity to the usual course of 
historical events. 

It belongs to the same faculty of the mind to recognize both truth 
and the semblance of truth ; and further mankind have a con- 
siderable aptitude toward what is true ; wherefore an aptness in 
conjecturing probabilities belongs to him who has a similar apt- 
ness in regard to truth. Aristotle, Rhet., p. 7. 

Poetry treats more of the general, history of the particular. The 
general tells us what might occur according to probability. Id., 
Poetics, p. 29. 

A play is still an imitation of nature; we know we are to be de- 
ceived, and we desire to be so ; but no man ever was deceived 
but with a probability of truth. 16G3. Drydex, XT., p. 360. 

Many things are probable of particular men, because they are true, 
which cannot be generally probable; and he that would be 
feigning persons should confine his fancy to general probability. 
Rymer, 1st Pt., p. 17. 

Poetry . . . should be probable . . . upon certain suppositious. 
S. JoHXSOX, Yll., p. 128. 

Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
it has usually been recognized that a close historical 
probability is not to be required in literarv As general 

. ' consistency 

representation. The series of events por- of plot, 
trayed must perhaps be capable of being conceived of 
as possible occurrences. Probability represents the his- 

16 



242 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

torical sense of what has been, as acting within the 
limits of the aestlietic sense of what is and ought to 
be. The only essential for this literary or " dramatic " 
probability is a certain dream-like consistency of plot 
construction. 

There are degrees of probability proper even to tlie wildest fietion. 

1814. Scott, Life ot" Swift, p. 315. 
In dramatic ])robability ... the ])oet does not require us to be 
awake and believe ; he solicits us only to yield ourselves to a 
dream. 1817. Coleridge, III., p. 564. 
Ben Jonson's plots are improbable by an excess of consistency. 

1819. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 51. 
The modern mind, so minutely self-scrutinizing, if it is to be af- 
fected at all by a sense of the supernatural, needs to be more 
finely touched than was possible in the older romantic presen- 
tation of it. The spectral object, so crude, so impossible, has 
become plausible as 

The blot upon the brain. 
That will show itself without, 
and is understood to be but a condition of one's own mind. 
1865. Pater, Ap., p. 99. 
Profound (XIII.) 6 : Swift to present. 

Moral profandity. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 111. 
Profusion (XIX.) b: Cole, to present. 

Profusion of interesting detail. Bagehot, Lit. St., L, p. 120. 
Progression (XVIII.) : Want of progression, so that he cannot in- 
duce the story to move on at all. Gosse, Erom Sliak., etc., 
p. 129. 
Prolix (XIX.) h : Gas. to present. 

A man may become prolix from the fulness or fervency of his 
mind ; but prolixity produced by this finical minuteness of lan- 
guage ends by distressing one's nerves. Stephen, Hrs. in a 
Lib., L, p. 365. 
PROPER (IV.). 

During the first century and a half of English criti- 
cism, the term " proper " was occasionally used to 






A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 243 

denote merely propriety of words. This technical use 
of the term is dei'ived from ancient rhetoric and criti- 
cism, yet its meaning was not so definite as ^^ propriety 
it was in the ancient theory of the term. It ^^ words, 
tended in English criticism to become more inclusive, 
to indicate a correct use not so much of separate words 
as of language in general. 

Words are : — 

1. Proper, — fixed to things. 

2. Metapliorical, — in places foreign to tliem. 

3. Invented, — by ourselves. Cicero, Orators, p. 375. 
Words are proper when they signify that to which they first ap- 
plied ; metaphorical when they have one signification by nature, 
and another in the place in which they are used. Quintilian, 
I., p. 53. 

Proper and apt words. 156S, Ascham, III., p. 211. 

For word and speech, Plautus is more plentiful, Terence more 
pure and proper. Id., p. 247. 

Their terms proper, their meter sweet. 1585. Puttenham, 
p. 76. 

Scholastic terms, yet very proper. Id., p. 159. 

Improper words . . . antiquated by custom . . . incorrect Eng- 
lish. 1670. Drydex, IV., p. 228. 

Even in early English criticism, however, ''proper" 
was often employed as a synonym for " propriety." 
Since the beginning of the eighteenth cen- ^^ propriety 
tury, this has been the universal use of the ^ se^^^ai. 
term. 

Proper for the subject. 1585. K. James, p. 64. 
Proper to poets. 1586. Webbe, p. 57. 

Nothing is truly sublime that is not just and proper. 1681. 
Dryden, YL, p. 407. 
Prophetic (XVI.): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 17. 



244 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CIUriCAL TERMS, 

PROPORTION (IL). 

Previous to the present century, the term " propor- 
tion" drew its meaning chiefly from external nature 

As external ^^^^ from moral conduct. It signified a gen- 
symmetry. ^^,^j harmony and adaptation of the parts of 
a composition to one another, of the thoughts expressed, 
and of the language employed in its expression. This 
harmony and adaptation was sometimes said to be de- 
termined, in part at least, by 'Miature" regarded as an 
activity of the mind ; but as employed in actual criti- 
cism, proportion was not so changeable a quantity as 
this dependence upon internal nature would cause it to 
be. Proportion was almost exclusively determined by 
applying to the literary work under discussion precepts, 
methods, and principles, derived from preceding liter- 
ature, especially from the masterpieces of Greece and 
Rome. Proportion, thus externally considered, tended 
to become mechanical and conventional, and to oppose 
all growth and development in the form of literary 
expression. 

Metaphors must be constructed on princi])les of analogy (propor- 
tion), else they will be sure to appear in bad taste. Aristotle, 
Rhet., p. 210. 

The world is made by symmetry and proportion, and is in that 
respect compared to music, and music to poetry. Campion, 
p. 231. 

Lydgate, noted for good proportion of his verse. Webbe, p. 32. 

This lovely conformity or proportion or convenience between the 
sense and the sensible hath nature herself most carefully ob- 
served in all her own works, then also by kind graft it in the 
appetites of every creature. 1585. Puttenham, p. 269. 

Of the indecencies of an heroic poem, the most remarkable are 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 245 

those tLat sliow disproportion either between the persons and 

their actions, or between the manners of the poet and the poem. 

1650. HoBBES, IV., p. 454. 
Knavery is mere dissonance and disproportion. Shaftesbury, I., 

p. 164. 
Harmony . . . symmetry and proportion are founded in nature, 

let men's fancy prove ever so barbarous, or their fashions ever 

so Gothic in their architecture, sculpture, or whatever other 

designing art. Id., p. 276. 
All disproportion is unnatural. 1781. S. Johnson, YIL, p. 156. 

During the present century the term " proportion " 
has occupied a much more subordinate position in criti- 
cism than formerly. But during the latter ^^ ^ ^^^^^ ^^ 
half of the century it has received some little ^^^^^^y- 
notice when given a psychological explanation. Pro- 
portion, considered as an inner sense, can never be 
said at any given time to have fully manifested itself 
in literature. Each literary work is in a manner a law 
unto itself. The term becomes more elastic and more 
capable of being adapted to the constant change of 
form and method of expression which has taken place 
in the development of literature. 

Proportion is a principle, not of architecture, but of existence . . . 
and in the fine arts it is impossible to move a single step, or to 
execute the smallest and simplest piece of work, without involv- 
ing all those laws of proportion in their full complexity. 1853. 
RusKiN, Lee. on Art and Painting, p. 110. 

Heine himself . . . seems to me wanting in a refined perception of 
that inward propriety, which is only another name for poetic 
proportion. 1866. Lowell, IL, p. 170. 

Possessing a sense of proportion based upon the highest analytic 
and synthetic powers, — a faculty that can harmonize the incon- 
gruous thoughts, scenes, and general details of a composite 
period. 1875. Stedman, Yict. Poets, p. 199. 



246 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

As a literary critic, Carl^de was sometimes perverse ; lie missed 
proportions; now and then he would resolutely invert tilings, 
and hold them up to mockery in grotesque disarray. 1887. 
DowDEN, Tr. & St., p. 183. 
PROPRIETY (lY.). 

Propriety denotes a general harmony among all the 
elements that enter into the composition of a work of 
literature. In so far as any harmony is capable of 
being determined analytically, it is necessary to have 
for the different elements entering into it a common 
basis, a common unit, so to speak, by a reference to 
which they are given their relative values. As pro- 
priety has been employed in actual criticism, this com- 
mon basis of reference is scarcely ever given. Yet 
according to the variation in this basis of reference, — 
* usually to be ascertained by inference, — the changes 
of meaning in the term " propriety " have taken place. 
The history of the term may be divided into four 
periods. 

Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century, 
propriety represented the influence in literature of an 
As an instinc- ii^stinct developed by culture, an instinct 
Uy^o^wen^" for regularity and probability, derived from 
principles, and the past, for temperance in statement and 

to "nature.*' . • i i r 

consistency, which spring largely from a 
sense of accuracy to present fact, and, perhaps, to a 
slight extent, for harmony and beauty, w4iich may 
refer to the future. But the term usually indicated a 
conformity to well established principles in the liter- 
ature of the past. From the study of this literature 
there was developed a cultured instinct by the activity 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 247 

of which propriety was determined, in so far as pro- 
priety was synthetic, an immediate sense or feeling. 
Occasionally, however, the propriety or fitness of the 
literary elements was determined in a more or less 
analytic manner. There is found mentioned a pro- 
priety or fitness of language, of phrase, of sounds, 
of names of characters, of versification, of figures of 
speech, of fictions, of sentiments, of characters, of the 
nature of the composition itself, — all instances in which 
but one of the three factors necessary for the analytic 
determination of propriety is found within the compo- 
sition that is being criticised. The other factors are 
to be derived by inference from the principles of earlier 
literature. The term '' propriety " was in very great 
use during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
representing more than any other expression the con- 
servative methods of criticism then dominant. 

Propriety consists neither in rapidity or conciseness, but in a mean 
betwixt both. Aristotle, Ehet., p. 248. 

As to propriety, no direction seems possible to be given but this, 
that we adopt a character of style fuller, plainer, or middling, 
suited to the subject on which we are to speak. ... To know 
w^iat is becoming is an affair of judgment, to be able to do the 
becoming is the part of art and of nature. Cicero, Orators, 
p. 395. 

By displacing no word . . . the verse ... be wrested against his 
natural propriety. 1586. Webbe, p. 63. 

To tlie propriety of expression I refer tbat clearness of memory by 
which a poet when te hath once introduced any person whatso- 
ever, speaking in his poem, maintainetli in him to the end the 
same character he gave him in the beginning. 1650. Hobbes, 
IV., p. 454. 

Tragedy ... is an imitation of one entire, great, and probable 



248 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

action; not told^, but represented; which, by moving in us fear 
and pity, is conducive to the purging of those two passions in 
our minds : ... or tragedy describes or paints an action, which 
action must have all the proprieties above named. 1679. 
Dkyden, YI., p. 260. 

Propriety of thought is that fancy which arises naturally from the 
subject, or which the poet adapts to it; propriety of words is 
the clothing of those thoughts with such expressions as are nat- 
urally proper to them. 1685. Id., VII., p. 228. 

A mixture of British and Grecian ideas may justly be deemed a 
blemish in the Pastorals of Pope; and propriety is certainly 
violated when he couples Pactolus with Thames, and Windsor 
with Hybla. 1756. J. Wahton, L, p. 4. 

During the latter half of the eighteenth century the 
terms '' propriety " and " beauty " were often used to- 
As an instinc- g^^ier. Propriety indicated a conformity of 
himony^ ^^ ^^^^ different parts of a composition with one 
composition another, or with the nature of the compo- 

itself. 

sition itself, the conformity to be determined 
primarily by the sense of beauty within the mind ; but 
also in part from well known images, customs, and 
principles derived from literature and experience. 

With what wildness of imagination, but yet with what propriety 
are the amusements of the fairies pointed out in the Midsummer 
Night^s Dream ; amusements proper for none but fairies. 1756. 
J. Wauton, L, p. 223. 

It has been the lot of many great names not to have been able to 
express themselves with beauty and propriety in the fetters of 
verse. Id., pp. 265, 266. 

In a work of so serious and severe a cast, strokes of levity, how- 
ever poignant and witty, are ill-placed and disgusting, are viola- 
tions of that propriety which Pope in general so strictly observes. 
Id., III., p. 112. 

What is false taste but a want of perception to discern propriety 
and distinguish beauty. 1761. Goldsmith, L, p. 324. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 249 

Even ill describing fantastic beings, there is a propriety to be ob- 
served, but surely notiiing can be more revolting to common 
sense than this numbering of the moonbeams among the other 
implements of Queen Mab's harness. 1762. Id., p. 381. 

Pope had an intuitive perception of consonance and propriety. 
1781. S. Johnson, VIII., p. 320. 

During the first half of the present century the 
term fell wholly into disfavor. It represented a con- 
formity to customs and principles, merely ^ conven- 
because those customs and principles were ^^ ^' 
old and well established. It denoted a total want of 
originality and native power. 

One would not surely be frightful when one 's dead ; 
And Betty, give this cheek a little red. (Dying words of Nar- 
cissa. Pope.) 
Was that right, to provide for coquetting in her coffin ? Why, 
no, not strictly right; its impropriety cannot be denied, etc. 
1848. De Quincey, XI., p. 76. 

During the latter portion of the present century the 

term has not been very much in use. It has had, 

however, three different meanings. The As "extrin- 
sic " har- 
endeavor has been made to distinguish be- mony. 

tween an extrinsic and an intrinsic propriety. Extrin- 
sic propriety has to do with the externals of literature, 
those things which may be derived from precept and 
custom, and may be reduced to rule and method. 

Tlie first demand we make upon whatever claims to be a work of 
art . . . is that it shall be in keeping. Now this propriety is 
of two kinds, either extrinsic or intrinsic. . . . Extrinsic pro- 
priety relates rather to the body than the soul of the vrork, such 
as fidelity to the facts of history . . . congruity of costume and 
the like. 1868. Lowell, III., p. 69, 



250 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The literary artist is of uccessity a scholar. . . . His punctilious 
observance of the proprieties of his medium will diffuse through 
all he writes a general air of sensibility, of refined usage. 1888. 
Pater, Ap., pp. 8, 9. 

Intrinsic propriety, on the other hand, may be said 
to represent the growing sense of beauty, which, how- 
As ^'intriii- cvcr, takes into account more than usual the 

sic ** har- 
mony, results of past achievement, which finds 

more pleasure than the ordinary sense of beauty in 

regularity and method. 

Intrinsic propriety consists of thre^ elements : — 

1. Co-ordination of character. 

2. Consistency. 

3. Propriety of costume ... to satisfy the supcrhistoric sense. 
All these come within the scope of imaginative truth. Lowell, 
III., p. G9. 

Throughout the whole history of the term, and es- 
pecially of late, it has occasionally been employed to 
As moral indicate a conformity in literary represen- 
deconim. tation to the moral sense of decency and 
decorum. 

The Anglo-Saxon novel is really not so prudish after all. . . . 

Sometimes a novel which has this shuffling air, this effect of 

trucklhig to propriety, etc. Howells, Crit. & Piction, p. 148. 

The propriety of the morals, the congrnity of the sentiments. 

1882. Saintsbury, Hist. Pr. Lit., p. 531. 

Prosaic (XXII.) b : Bentley to present. 

Prosaic accuracy of detail. Stephen, I., p. 57- 
Prosing : Jef. to present. 

Mystical and prosing. Jeepret, L, p. 284. 
Provincial (I.) : Gold, to present. 

The provincial spirit exaggerates the value of its ideas for want of 
a high standard at hand by whicli to try them. M. Arnold, 
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 66. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 251 

Prudish: The Anglo-Saxon novel is really not so prudish after all. 

HoTTELLS, Crit. & Eiction, p. 148. 
Prurient (XY.) : Effeminate or prurient. Svi^-buii^-e, Mis., p. 230. 
Puerile (XII.) : Mil. to present. 

By puerility we mean a pedantic habit of niiud which by over- 
elaboration ends in frigidity. Loxginus, p. 6. 
The circumstance in this line is puerile and little : — 
And little eagles wave their wings in gold. 

J. Wartox, IL, p. 202. 
Puerism (I.) : Lessing's style is pure without puerisiii. Caklyle, 

L, p. 40. 
Puling: Puling classical affectation. Jefeeey, II., p. 248. 
Pungent (XX.) h: Scott to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 
Puny; Puny affectation. Jeepeey, II., p. 175. 
PURITY (I). 

Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century 
purity of language usually indicated a scholastic re- 
finement of the popular idiom. Whenever ^g j-efined 
English critics referred to Latin and Greek ^^^^^^^* 
authors, purity, perhaps, signified merely a choice of 
specific and appropriate expressions, and their arrange- 
ment according to the rules of composition ; but when- 
ever English literature was the subject of criticism, 
purity denoted further a selection and arrangement of 
words and phrases in conformity with the literary 
principles of the ancient masterpieces. 

Purity . . . the foundation of all style » . . consists of five things : 

1. Connective particles. 

2. Particular terms (as against Generalities). 

3. Clearness (avoiding ambiguities). 

4. Correct genders of nouns. 

5. Correct numbers of words. Aristotle, Rhet., pp. 219-222. 
Pureness of phrase . . . and propriety of words ... in Terence. 

AscHAM, p. 144 (Arber). 



252 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

For word and speecli. Plant us is more plentiful, Terence more 
pure and proper. Id., 111., p. 247. 

As simplicity is the distinguishing clKiracteristic of Pastoral, Vir- 
gil hath been thought guilty of too courtly a style; his language 
is perfectly pure, and he often forgets he is among peasants. 
1713. Pope, X., p. 508. 

Surrey, for his justness of thought, correctness of style, and purity 
of expression, may justly be pronounced the first English clas- 
sical poet. 1778. T. VYarton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 615. 

During the present century two other uses of the 
term are to be noted. Purity often designates the 
As idiomatic well-establlshed native idiom of the lan- 
language. guage, as opposed to innovations of all kinds, 
whether scholastic, foreign, or popular in their origin, 
whether referring to the selection of words alone, or 
to the phraseology also. 

Spenser's language is less pure and idiomatic than Chaucer's. 

1818. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, p. 56. 
There is nothing so unclassical, nothing so impure in style, as 

pedantry. 1861. Bagehot, Lit. St., II., p. 360. 

During the present century, however^ purity has usu- 
ally referred not to language directly, but to thought 
As moral ^^^^ conduct. The word "- purity " has been 
uprightness, appropriated to express the rising sense of 
morals in literature. Purity of language has received 
less attention in criticism during this century than 
formerly, and is usually expressed by less ambiguous 
terms than '' purity." 

A lyrical purity and passion. 1887. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 167. 

Milton's power of style has for its great character elevation; and 
Milton's elevation clearly comes in the main from a moral quality 
in him, — his pureness. M. Arnold, Mixed Es., p. 202. 



A HliSTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 253 

Puzzling (HI.): Startling, imclassical, and puzzling. JEFrnEY, I.^ 

p. 200. 
QUAINT (IX.) : Camden to present. Miicli in use. 

I. Until within the first few decades of the present 
century, '' quaiiitness " usually represented an obscure 
and antiquated oddity, the result of affectation and a 
lack of originality. 

There are, my friend, whose philosophic eyes 
Look through and trust the Ruler with his skies. 

This is . . . quaint and obscure. J. Warton, II., p. 327. 

Tricks, quaintnesses, hieroglyphics, and enigmas. Wordsworth, 
II., p. 103. 

Quaint and prosaic. Jepfrey, II., p. 318. 

Quaint low humour. Hazlitt, El. Lit., p. 24. 

Quaintness, coldness, and conceit. Wilson, V., p. 362. 

II. Since the first few decades of the present cen- 
tury, and occasionally throughout its entire history, 
quaintness has usually represented a mystical and re- 
mote oddness, primitive simplicity, and naivete, em- 
bodied in more or less primitive methods of expression. 

A quaintness . . . something poetical. Bextley, I., p. 266. 
Quaintness merguig into grotesqueness. M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., 

p. 175. 
A touch of naivete, of old-world quaintness. Robertson, Es., 
etc., p. 3. 
Questionable (VIII.) : Jeffrey, III., p. 102. 
Quibbling (XL) : Shaftes. to present. 

All humour had something of the quibble. The very language of 
the court was punning. SnAETESBrRY, L, p. 48, 
Quick (XII.) : Camden to present. 

Quick with bright spontaneous feeling. Dowden, Shak., etc., 
p. 333. 
Quiet (XIX.) a: S\yin., Sted. Swinburne, Mis., p. 97. 
Racy (XII.) : Jef. to present. 



254 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The idiomatic and unconventional in expression ; the 
native, sincere, and direct in thought; strength of local 
coloring, at the expense, perhaps, of artistic refinement. 

liacy humour. Jeitkey, I., ]). 214. 

Strength of conlrajst, a racincss and a glow. Lame, P. P. & Es., 

p. 261. 
Vigorous, rough and racy lines. Wilson, II., p. 285. 
A spirit and racincss very unlike these frigid conceits. Hallam, 

III., p. 257. 
Racy words: bain, kick, wlujp, twaddle, fudge, hitch, etc. M. 

Arnold, Cel. Lit., p. 69. 
Metaphors and similes are racy of the soil in wliich they grow, as 
you taste, it is said, the lava in the vines on the slopes of iEtna. 
Mathews, Lit. St., p. 15. 
Radiant : Low. to present. 

Kadiant verses. Lowell, Prose, IV., p. 313. 
Raillery (XVIL): Dry. to present. 

The raillery is carried to the verge ot railing, some will say ribaldry. 
J. Warton, IL, p. 250. 
Rambling (XVIII.) : Wil. to present. 

Desultory and rambling. Wilson, VL, p. 238. 
Rancid (XIV.): Stale and rancid. Swinburne, Mis., p. 111. 
Rancour (XIV.): Saints., Gosse. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., 

p. 232. 
Range (XIII.) h : Swin., Beers. 
Rant (XIX.) h : Collier to present. 

Gasping, ranting, wheezing, broken-winded verse. Swinburne, 
Mis., p. 76. 
RAPID (XVIII). 

The term ''rapid" began to become prominent in 
criticism about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
and its use has been constantly upon the increase to 
the present time. There has been some little variation 
as to the portion of. the composition designated by the 
term, but there has perhaps been no change in its 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 255 

meaning. The term represents an intensity of mental 
interest, and a constant develoj)ment in the elements 
which go to make up that interest, — ^^ a swift sequence 
of sounds and rhythms, of thoughts, of mental images, 
and of the incidents of plot construction. Ease in a 
composition is in a sense a prerequisite for rapidity. 
Rapidity is attained only by means of great energy 
and animation. Hence the term tends to characterize 
those features of a composition which most excite one's 
sympathy and interest, — to the mental imagery and to 
the development of the plot. It occasionally, however, 
refers to the literary work as a whole. 

Rapid and aj)proacli nearer to conversation. 1756. J. TVartox, 

II., p. 356. 
Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid. S. Jonxsox, Till., 

p. 324. 
Clarendon's narration is not, perliaps, sufficiently rapid, being- 
stopped too frequently by particularities. 1751. Id., III., 

p. 83. 
Animation, fire, and rapidity. Blaie, Rliet., p. 40. 
Demosthenes has a rapid harmony, exactly adjusted to the sense. 

1742. D. Hume, I., p. 170. 
The rapidity, and yet the perspicuity of the thoughts. J. T\'ae- 

Tox, II., p. 20. 
Of all Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth is the most rapid, Hamlet the 

slowest, in movement. 1810. Coleridge, IV., p. 133. 
In variety and rapidity of movement, the xilexander's Eeast has all 

that can be required in this respect. ISIS. Hazlitt, Eng. 

Poets, p. 108. 
Rapture (XY.) : Low. to present. Rossetti, Lives, p. 57- 
Rash (XII.) : Jeffrey. IL, p. 375. 
Rational (.XX.) : Jef. to present. 

Simplicity and rationality ... of Voltaire. M. Aexold, Cel. 

Lit., pi 164. 
Pope was a = . . rationalist and formalist. T. Arxold. d. 418. 



256 A HISTORY OP ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Rattling (X.) : Rattling verses ... of Hudibras. Gosse, Hist. 

Eiig. Lit., p. 27. 
Raving (XV.) : Raving style admired in Germany. Jeffrey, I., 

p. 289. 
Raw: Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 257. 
Reach (Xlll.)h: Low. to present. 

Less depth and reacli and force. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 100. 
Readable (XXIL) a : Swin., Gosse. 

1. Somewhat interesting. 
Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 179. 

2. Not morally offensive and disgusting. 

No longer readable comedies of Mariage a hi Mode. Gosse, Hist. 
Eng. Lit., III., p. 43. 
REALITY (VIIL). 

The term ''reality" began to be employed in criti- 
cism during the latter portion of the eighteenth cen- 
As the fun- ^^^T? ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ Constantly upon 
prSdpfeof the increase until the present time. "Real- 

fixistence 

ity," primarily a philosophical term, denotes 
in general the external world of appearances, or what- 
ever seems to be such, or whatever fully explains these 
appearances. Three different meanings have been given 
to the term. In the first portion of the present cen- 
tury, occasionally later, reality indicated the essential 
reason or principle, which underlies appearances, that 
which renders their existence possible, and gives to 
them unity and significance. 

Trnth is correlate to being. Knowledge without a correspondent 

reality is no knowledge. 1S17. Coleridge, III., p. 342. 
Poetry must dwell in reality, and become manifest to men in the 

forms among which they live and move. Carlyle, L, p. 56. 
We create nine-tenths at least of what appears to exist externally ; 
and such is somewhere about the proportion between reality and 
imagination. 1832. Wilson, YI., p. 109. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 257 

Literature is the record of man's attempt to make actual to tliouglit 
a life approacliing nearer to reaKty than tlie boasted actual life of 
the world. ... If the phrase, realizing the ideal, were translated 
into the phrase, actualizing the real, much ambiguity might be 
avoided. 1845. Whipple, Es. & Rev., p. 300. 

In Keats and Giierin, in whom the faculty of naturalistic interpre- 
tation is overpoweringly predominant, the natural magic is per- 
fect; when they speak of the world, they speak like Adam, 
naming by divine inspiration the creatures ; their expression 
corresponds with the thing's essential reality. 1865. M. 
Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 112. 

Throughout its whole history the term ''• reality " 
has often been employed to denote an imaginative 
heightening of ordinary events and appear- as imagina- 

^ . . . tive fasci- 

ances, which, by holding the attention spell- nation, 
bound, seems itself to represent actual appearances, 
that have become externalized, as it were, and made a 
basis, perhaps, for future thought and action. 

Waller borrows too many of his sentiments and illustrations from 
the old mythology, for which it is vain to plead the example of 
ancient poets ; the deities which they introduced so frequently 
were considered as realities, so far as to be received by the im- 
agination, whatever sober reason might even then determine. 
1781. S. Johnson, YIL, p. 216. 

Don Quixote . . . presents something more stately, more roman- 
tic, and at the same time more real to the imagination than any 
other hero upon record. 1819. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. Writers, 
p. 145. 

Imagination has ... in Milton's Satan . . . achieved its highest 
triumph, in imparting a character of reality and truth to its most 
daring creations. Channing, p. 416. 

Yivid realism of the impossible. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 120. 

We have admitted that Beatrice Portinari was a real creature, but 
how real she w^as, and whether as real to the poet's memory as 
to his imagination may fairly be questioned. 1872. Lowell, 
IV., p. 206. 

17 



258 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

But the term ''reality" has Ijccn employed to denote 
the facts and events of actual life far more frequently 
As actuauty ^^^^^'^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ term just given. In 
ordinary' this more common and general use of the 
unse ec e . j^^yj^^ l^^YQ distinctions of meaning at least 
should be draAvn. Until within tlie latter portion of 
the present century, the term usually denoted the facts 
and events of actual life, considered in so mechanical 
a fashion that every one would agree even as to the 
most minute details of the facts or events portrayed. 
Hence the subject-matter of literature was inevital)ly 
taken from those phases of actual life well known in 
ordinary experience, but new, perhaps, to literary treat- 
ment. The realistic method of literary treatment was 
usually assumed to be a full, detailed, and accurate 
account of the fact or event recorded, — selection in 
the details being permissible only for the purpose of 
avoiding incoherency and tediousness. 

We are more affected by reading Shakespeare's description of 
Dover Cliff, tban we would be with the reality ; because in 
reading the description we refer to our own experience, and 
perceive witli surprise the justness of the imitations. 1761. 
Goldsmith, I., p. 339. 

They (formerly) loved, I will not say tediousness, but length and 
a train of circumstances in a narration. The vulgar do so still : 
it gives an air of reality to facts, it fixes the attention, raises and 
keeps in suspense their expectation, and supplies the defects of 
their little lifeless imagination. 1762. Gray, I., p. 392. 

The plot and character are natural without being too real to be 
pleasing. 1829. Newman, Es. on Aristotle, p. 16. 

Fiction has no business to exist unless it is more beautiful than 
reality. 1865. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 392. (Quoted.) 

Exaltation of the commonplace through the scientific spirit in real- 
ism. Ho WELLS, Grit, and Eiction, p. 16. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 259 

More recently it has usually been recognized that 
external facts and events can be conceived of only as 
they are brought into relation with some As actuality 

... . . 1 1 . 1 • . . 1 -r motived and 

uniiymg princii)le which is not external, in selected, 
literature, this unifying principle is some ethical mo- 
tive or the action of the aesthetic instincts. Selection 
of details in composition has been recognized not only 
as a necessity, bat often as constituting the chief means 
for a vivid representation of the actual fact. Also, the 
representation of the more uncommon features of ac- 
tual life is not thought to be inconsistent with the 
realistic method of treatment. Hence the recent use 
of the term '' reality " represents a broader conception 
of actual life than the early use of the term, a more 
discriminative selection of the details to be mentioned, 
and a wider limit to the subject-matter of literary 
representation. 

A figure may be ideal and yet accurate, realistic and yet untrue, 
as a fact not thoroughly fathomed may be in effect a falsehood. 
There is a far stronger cross of the ideal in the realism of ^s- 
chylus or Shakespeare than runs through the work of the great 
modern writers. 1869. Swinbuune, Es. & St., p. 220. 

A vigorous grasp of realities is rather a proof of a powerful than a 
defective imagination. 1874. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 283. 

When we speak of Middlemarch as more realistic, and Daniel 
Deronda as more ideal, it is not meant that one is true to the 
facts of life and the other untrue ; it is rather meant that in the 
one the facts are taken more in the gross, and in the other there 
is a passionate selection of those facts that are representative of 
the highest (and also of the lowest) things. Dowden, St. in 
Lit., p. 285. 

Thus every workman must be a realist in knowledge, an idealist 
for inter])retation, and the antagonism between realists and ro- 



200 A ins TORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

maiicers is a forced one. 1892. Steuman, Nat. of Poetry, 
p. 199. 
That only is real for us which reappears before our solitude wlieii. 
closing our eyes aud letting our spirit tuminate upon itself, wv 
evoke our personal mirage of the universe. — P. Bourget, p. 190. 
Reasonable (XX.) : Low. to present. 

A^oltaire tells that Mr. Addison was the first Englishman who had 
Avritten a reasonable tragedy. Lowell, IY., p. 14. 
Recondite: Swin. to present. 

So recondite and exquisite as the choral parts of a Greek play. 
Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 162. 
Recreation: Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 208. 
Redundant (XIX.) 6: B. Jon. to present. 

Keduudancy of humours. Shaftesbury, L, p. 131. 
Refinement (V.) : Mil. to present. 

I. Previous to the present century, "refinement" 
usually represented a cultured use of language, and 
an apt selection of the facts of history for literary 
composition. 

Endeavor ... by precepts and by rules to perpetuate that style 
and idiom . . . which have flourished in the purest periods of 
the language. ... it gives gentility, elegance, refinement. 
Milton, III., p. 496. 

The ancients refined upon history. Rymer, 1st Pt., p. 16. 

II. During the present century, refinement has usu- 
ally represented certain mental characteristics : delicate 
sensibility, and chastened emotions and feelings. 

Poetic imagery . . . must elevate, deepen, or refine the human 
passion. Wordsworth, II., p. 56. 
Reflective (XX.) d: T. War. to present. 

Reflective and self-sustained. Whipple, Es. & Rev., p. 49. 
REGULARITY (II.). 

There has been considerable change in the favor with 
which the term '^ reg:ularitv " has been rerarded in Ena- 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 261 

lish criticism, but there has perhaps been no change in 
its meaning. It has been employed chiefly to charac- 
terize the general design or plot construction of a lit- 
erary production, but it sometimes refers to the more 
subordinate features of a composition, especially to the 
versification. Regularity is determined less immedi- 
ately than proportion by an inner sense, and it makes 
less assumption of law and fixed method than order. 
It denotes a more or less mechanical correspondence 
between the different parts of a composition, or between 
the parts of one composition and those of other com- 
positions. Regularity was first opposed to variety, then 
to imagination. In the early portion of the present 
century the term fell almost wholly into disfavor, but 
more recently it has again come into active use in con- 
nection with the criticism of prose literature. 

Regularities : The unities of action, time, and place. Ryaieii, 1st 

Pt., p. 24. 
RegulaVitj and roundness of design. Id., 2d Pt., p. S5. 
The genius of the English cannot bear too regnlar a play ; vre are 

given to variety. 1690. Deyden, YIL, p. 313. 
Imagination, a licentious and vagrant faculty, unsusceptible of 

limitations, and impatient of restraint, has ahvays endeavored to 

baffle the logician, to perplex the confines of distinction, and 

burst the inclosures of regularity. 1751. S. Johxson, III., 

p. 93. 
The work of a correct and regular writer is a garden accurately 

formed and diligently planted, varied with shades, and scented 

with flowers ; the composition of Shakespeare is a forest, etc. 

1765. S. Johnson, Y., p. 127. 
The essence of verse is regularity, and its ornament is variety. 

1781. Id., YIL, p. 346. 
The true ground of the mistake lies in the confounding mechanical 

regularity with organic furm. ISIO. Coleridge, 1Y., p. 55. 



262 A HISTORY OF EN G US 11 CRITICAL TERMS. 

The thoughts are vast and irregular ; and the style halts and stag- 
gers under them. 1820. Hazlttt, Age of EL, p. 44. 

The needful qualities for a fit prose aic regularity, uniformity, ])rc- 
cisiou, balance. M. Ahnold, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 39. 
Relief (TX.): Relief and variety. Jeffuey, II., p. 405. 
Rememberable : A remcmberable verse. Lowell, Prose, II., p. 140. 
Remote: Pope to present. S. Johnson, YIL, p. 208. 
Repartee (XVII.) : Dry. to present. 

Repartee is the soul of conversation. Dryden, III., p. 245. 

Repartee ... a chase of wit. Id., XV., p. 334. 

Bon mots aud re])artces. J. Warton, II., p. 144. 
Repose (XIX.) rt : Jef., Stephen. 

Want of plainness, simplicity, and repose. Jeffrey, II., p. 471. 
Repulsive (XXII.) h: Swin. to present. Dowden, Shak., etc., p. 82. 
Reserve (XIX.) b : Jcf. to present. 

Reserve and gravity of the style Jeffrey, L, p. 367. 
Resonance (X.): Swin. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 237- 
Restless (XIX.) : Howells, Crit. and Fiction, p. 24. 
Restrained (XIX.) h: Low. to present. 

Restrained vigor. Lowell, I., p. 290. 
Revolting (XXII.) ^: Jef., Gosse. 

Revolting in its details. Jeffrey, III., p. 133. 
Rhapsodical (XXL): Campbell to present. 

Poetical and rhapsodical. Rossetti, Pref. to Blake, p. cxiii. 
Rhetorical (XIX.) h: Lodge to present. 

Rhetoric ... a sort of art is immediately thought of that is osten- 
tatious and deceitful ; tlie minute and trifling study of words 
alone ; the pomp of expression ; the studied fallacies of Rhetoric ; 
ornament substituted in the room of use. Blair, Rhet., p. 10. 

The prosing rhetoric of the Prench tragedy. Bagehot, 1L, p. 273- 

Macaulay was a born rhetorician ; but beyond the apparent rhe- 
torical truth of things lie never could penetrate. M. Arnold. 
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 304. 

Rhetorical, ornate, — and poetically quite false. Id., 2d S., p. 97. 
RHYTHMICAL (X). 

The rhythmical, unlike the metrical, is not regarded 
as a quality which inheres objectively, as it were, in 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 263 

the composition considered as a completed product. 
The rhythmical refers wholly to the effect which the 
literary work produces upon the mind of the reader. 
It consists of such a succession of regular and irregular 
movements as shall to a certain extent gratify the ex- 
pectation or anticipation aroused, but shall also by 
means of little surprises constantly give the expecta- 
tion new material upon which inferences may be based. 

I would trace the origin of meter to the balance in the mind ef- 
fected by that spontaneous effort which strives to hold in check 
the workings of passion. 1817. Coleridge, III., p. 415. 
Rhythmical and sweet. Hallam, III., p. 335. 
Rhythmic emotion. Lowell, III., p. 2. 

The language, alike of poetry and prose, attains a rhythmical 
power, independent of metrical combination, and dependent 
rather on some subtle adjustment of the elementary sounds of 
words themselves to the image or feehng they convey. 1874. 
Pater, Ap., p. 57. 
Ribald (XIY.) : J. War., Gosse. J. Warton, II., p. 250. 
Rich (XL) 6 : Dekker to present. Much in use in present century. 
Richness and sweetness of sound. Colerid&e, III., p. 276. 
Rich in colour. Swinbur>s"e, A St. of B. Jonson, p. 65. 
Rich perfume. Dowdex, Tr. & St., p. 207. 
Ridiculous (XYll.) : Pope to present. 

The only source of the true ridiculous ... is affectation. Lield- 
IXG, J. Andrews, Pref., pp. 13, 11. 
Rigmarole: Saintsbury, Eng. Lit., p. 319. 
Ringing: Gosse, Brooke. 

Ringing hyperboles. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 43. 
Ripe : Swin., Gosse. 

Ripe and . . . free from aU romantic influence. Gosse, Erom 
Shak., etc., p. 94. 
Robust (XII.) : Cole, to present. 

Robustness is the great characteristic of Dry den's poetry. Ros- 
SETTi, Lives, p. 106. 



264 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Romance (XXI.) : Campbell to present. 

Upon these three columns — chivalry, gallantry, and religion — 
repose the fictions of the middle ages, especially those usually 
designated as romances. Hallam, Lit. Hist., I., p. 135. 

The impotent feelings of romance, so singularly characteristic of 
this century, may indeed gild, but never save, the remains of 
those mightier ages to which they are attached like climbing 
flowers. RusKiN, Stones of Venice, I., p. (32. 

Diffusion is in the nature of a romance. Swinburne, Es. & St., 
p. 122. 

ROMANTIC (IX.). 

The history of the term " romantic " may be divided 
into three periods. During the first period, which in- 
As wild cM- ^l^^des the last half of the eiglitecnth century, 
aDd"adveE?^^ the term was employed in two more or less 
^^' distinct ways. The romantic sometimes in- 

dicated the general spirit of romance and adventure. 
When given this meaning, the term was not very much 
in favor with the critics. " The chivalric passion and 
the beautiful superstitions with which it was histori- 
cally associated, could not fail, indeed, to elicit admira- 
tion. But it was necessary to ascribe to this chivalric 
passion very many improbable adventures, extravagant 
combinations of incidents, and inconceivable feats of 
daring, — all of them flagrant violations of " truth " 
and " nature." 

(Of Corneille's Plays.) It is observed how mudi that wild goose 
chase of Romance runs still in their head ; some scenes of love 
must everywhere be shuffled in, though never so unseasonably. 
Rymer, 2d Pt., p. 62. 

Those intrigues and adventures to which the romantic taste has 
confined modern tragedy. T. Tickell, Arber's Garner, VI., 
p. 520. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 265 

He who would tliiuk the Faery Queen, Palamon and Arcite, The 
Tempest, or Comus, childish and romantic, might relish Pope. 
1756. J. Warton, II., p. 403. 

That for which Tasso is most liable to censure is a certain roman- 
tic vein which runs through many of the adventures and inci- 
dents of his poem. Blair, Hhet., p. 497. 

Often, also, the romantic represented any unusually 
striking and beautiful mental image or view of natural 
scenery. When thus employed, the term was ^^ ,^^^ 
always regarded with favor by the critics. I^enery aM 
But the romantic scene or image was often ^"^^^^^• 
merely the background and localized setting, so to 
speak, for the activity of the romantic passion, and 
hence the two meanings of the term blended impercep- 
tibly into a single meaning. 

The country of the Scotch warriors described in . . . Chevy 
Chase . . . has a fine romantic situation. 1710. Addison, 
II., p. 378. 

I cannot at present recoUect any sohtude so romantic. . . . The 
mind naturally loves to lose itself in one of these wildernesses, 
and to forget the hurry, the noise, and splendor of more pol- 
ished life. 1756. J. Warton, I., p. 349. 

Wild and romantic imagery. Id., II., p. 35. 

Beautifully romantic. Id., p. 65. 

During the early portion of the present century the 
opposition between the terms " romantic " and " clas- 
sical," which had hitherto been, for the most ^^ energetic 
part, merely historical and casual, developed ^dsuggestive 
into a philosophical antithesis, in which the ^^®^^*^°^- 
terms were intended to be really and essentially op- 
posed and complementary to each other. The roman- 
tic became more refined and intellectual than it had 



266 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

formerly been. Chivalric passion was transformed into 
poetic passion ; wild and picturesque imagery into 
suggestive imagery. The romantic represented the 
more pronounced idealizing tendencies in literature, a 
broader and yet broader view of human life, depth of 
conception and feeling, a fierce intellectual tension, 
from hovering ever on the borders of the incompre- 
hensible, the mysterious, the infinite. 

Ill Sliakespeare, the commonest matter-of-fact lias a romantic grace 
about it. 1817. Hazlitt, Shak., p. 196. 

Komantic and enthusiastic. Id., p. 182. 

The great difference, then, which we find between the romantic and 
classical style, between ancient and modern poetry, is, that the 
one more frequently describes things as they are interesting in 
themselves, the other for the sake of tlie associations of ideas 
connected with them ; that the one dwells more on the immedi- 
ate impressions of objects on the senses, the other on the ideas 
which they suggest to the imagination. 1820. Id., Age of El, 
p. 246. 

Romantic beauty and high- wrought passion. Id., El. Lit., p. 126. 

Romantic, sweet, tender. Id., p. 169. 

The real and proper use of the word romantic is simply to charac- 
terize an improbable or unaccustomed degree of beauty, sublim- 
ity, or virtue. . . . True friendship is romantic, to the men of 
the world ; true affection is romantic ; true religion is romantic. 
1853. RusKiN, Lecture on A. & P., p. 62. 

During the latter portion of the present century the 
"romantic" has been placed in opposition to the "real- 
As suggestive, ^^^^^" no Icss than to the ''classical." As 
ffiSi^c' ' opposed to the "realistic," the '' romantic" 

idealization. -, . j.« .• i j.- i 

denotes an artistic selection and an impas- 
sioned treatment of the subject-matter of literature. 
As opposed to the classical, ^'romantic" has become 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 267 

for the most part a classifying term, being employed 

to designate two periods of English literature, — 

Sliakespeare being the culmination of the first period, 

Wordsworth of the second. 

It is this warmth of circumstance, this profusion of interesting 
detail, which has caused the name romantic to be perseveringly 
applied to modern literature. 1856. EagehoTj Lit. St., I., 
p. 120. 
The side of Elliott's genius which is most remote from reality, 
which loved to be romantic, was his less true self, and in his 
romantic poems there is unquestionably a note of spuriousness. 
DowDEN, St. in Lit., pp. 39, 40. 
The romantic movement was as universal then as the realistic 
movement is now, and as irresistible. It was the literary ex- 
pression of monarchy and aristocracy, as reahsm is the literary 
expression of republicanism and democracy. Howells, Mod. 
It. Poets, p. 133. 
At its best, romantic literature in every period attains classical 
quality, giving true measure of the very Hmited value of those 
well-worn critical distinctions. 1886. Pater, Ap., p. 161. 
Rough (11.) : Ascham to present. 

Lucretius is scabrous and rough in these . . . antique words. B. 
JoNSON, Timber, p. 61. 
Rough-hewn (II.) : Bentley's vernacular style is rough-hewn. 

GossE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 104. 
Rubbishy (XI.) : Ros. Gosse, Prom Shak., etc., p. 139- 
Rude (V.) : Ascham to present. 

E,ude and imperfect. Bentley, L, p. 324. 
■ Rude, inartificial majesty. S. Johnson, III., p. 83. 
Rugged (Y.) : Collier to present. 

I. Rough. 

After about half a century of forced thoughts and rugged meter, 
some advances toward nature and harmony had been made by 
Waller and Denham. S. Johnson, YIL, pp. 307, 308. 

II. Sturdy. 

Rugged simplicity ... of Burns. Caelyle, II., p. 11. 



268 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Rustic (V.) : Sidney to present. 

liustic and awkward. . . . Rnstic terms are unlikely to be com- 
pounded with accuracy. Landor, VIII., p. 407. 
Saccade: Saccade, — its rapidity is jerky. M. Arnold, Celtic Lit., 

p. 194. 
Sad (XIV.) : Whip, to present. 

WordsAvorth has not the note of plangent sadness which strikes the 
ear. in men as morally inferior to him as Rousseau, Keats, etc. 
MoRLEY, St. in Lit., p. 41. 
Sagacity (XX.) ^ : Jef., Mor. 

Depth of sagacity. Jeffrey, II., p. 91. 
Salient (XVI.) : Low. to present. 

Donne is full of salient verses. Lowell, Prose, III., p. 35. 
Salt (XVII.) : Dry., Wil. 

His wit is faint and his salt . . . almost insipid. Dryden, XIII. , 

p. 88. 
As for the saltness of sagacity and wit, Mr. Wordsworth looks 
dow^n upon it as a profane thing. Wjlson, V., p. 395. 
Sameness (II. ) : Collier to present. 

Between variety and sameness. Hunt, Im. & Fancy, p. 37. 
Sanity (XX.) b : Noble sanity. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 302. 
Sappy : Weightiness of sappy words. Newton, Spenser Society, 

XLIII., p. 3. 
Sarcasm (XVII.) : Gold, to present. 

Wit and humour stand on one side, irony and sarcasm on the 
other. Landor, IV., p. 282. 
Sardonic : Sardonic persiflage. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 254. 
Satire (XVII.) : Dry. to present. 

I. Previous to the present centuiy the satirical usu- 
ally represented raillery and sarcasm at the less favored 
conditions and the less refined achievements of life, 
viewed from the standpoint of the more cultured attain- 
ments and conditions. 

Satire : a sharp, well-mannered way of laughing a folly out of 
countenance. 1693. Dryden, XllL, p. 112. 

Satire is the poetry of a nation highly polished. T. Warton, 
p. 950. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 269 

II. During the present century satire has indicated 
a more or less genial play of humor upon the incon- 
gruities of actual life, in view of an ideal, — the pur- 
pose or ideal being more persistent and definite than 
in the case of pure humor, and thus causing it to 
verge toward bitterness and mahgnity. 

Ricliter's satire is playful . . . uever bitter, scoruful, or malignant. 

De Quincey, XI., p. 271. 
Whenever the satire of the noble grotesque fixes upon human 
nature, it does so with so much sorrow mingled amidst its 
indignation; in its highest forms there is an infiuite tenderness, 
like that of the fool in Lear. Ruskin, Stones of Venice, II., 
p. lU. 
Savour: Swin., Mor. Swinburne, Es. & St, p. 71. 
Scabrous (II.) : B. Jon., Dry. B. Jonson, Timber, p. 61. 
Scholastic (XV.) : S. John., E. Brown. 

Scholastic . . . but not inelegant. S. Johnson, VII., p. 19. 

The pedantry ... of Milton . . . (if it is to be so called), of the 

scholastic enthusiast, who is constantly referring to images of 

which his mind is full, is as graceful as it is natural. Hazlitt, 

Bound Table, p. 47. 

Scientific: ''Zenith-height" is harsh to the ear and too scientific. 

Gray, III., p. 74. 
Scrupulous (XIX.) h : Scrupulous delicacy of taste. Jeefeey, I., 

p. 165. 
Sculpturesque (XIX.) 6: 

In the Greek drama one must conceive the presiding power to be 
Death ; in the English, Life. What Death ? What Life ? That 
sort of death or of life locked up and frozen into everlasting 
slumber, which w^e see in sculpture ; that sort of life, of tumult, 
of agitation, of tendency to something beyond, which yvq see in 
painting. The picturesque, in short, domineers over English 
tragedy ; the sculpturesque or the statuesque over the Grecian. 
De Qtjincey, X., p. 315. 
Scurrilous (XIV.) : Hal. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 246. 
Seasonable (IV.) : Bymer to present. Bymee, 2d Pt., p. 62. 



270 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Sedate (XIX.) a: Swiii., Gosse. 

Grave and sedate. Swinburne, Mis., p. 105. 
Seductive (XXII.) d : Jd., Saints. 

Seductive beauty. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., p. 42. 
Seemly (lY.) : Put., Webbe. 

Seemely simplicity. Webbe, p. 53. 
Selection (XXTII ) : S. John, to present. 

I. Until within the first few decades of the present 
century, selection denoted an intellectual choice, a more 
or less logical severity, leading to condensation and 
accuracy. 

Young's poetry . . . abounds in thought, but without much accu- 
racy or selection. S. Johnson, VIII., p. 461. 

Crabbe's great selection and condensation of expression. Jef- 
frey, II., p. 276. 

II. During the latter portion of the present century 
selection has indicated an instinctive and gesthetic ap- 
propriation of certain possible elements in the construc- 
tion of literature, leading to its elevation and perhaps 
to its idealization. 

Your historian with absolutely truthful intention . . . must needs 
select, and in selecting assert something of his own humour, 
something that comes not of the world without, but of a vision 
within. Pater, Ap., p. 5. 
A passionate selection of those facts that are representative of the 
highest (and also of the lowest) things. Dowden, St. in Lit., 
p. 285. 

Self-assertive (XII.) : Ros,, Swin. Rossetti, Lives, p. 105. 

Self-control (XIX.) h : Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 229. 

Self-retarding: A self-retarding movement. M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., 
p. 206. 

Self-Tvithdrawal : Rossetti, Lives, p. 157. 

Semle (XII.): Whip., Stephen. Whipple, Am. Lit., p. 264 

Sensational (XV.) : T. Arnold to present, 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 271 

Melo-drama, or what is generally called sensational writing. Ste- 
phen, I., pp. 222, 223. 
Sense (XX.) : Dry. to present. 

What rhyme adds to the sweetness, it takes away from the sense. 
DrydeV, XIY, p. 212. 
Sensibility (XV.) : Jef. to present. 
Sensible (XX.) a : Ascham to present. 

Sensibly, pithily, bitinsrly. X'ewtox, Spenser Society, XLIII., 
p. 3.' 
Sensual (XIV.) : Hunt to present. 

A poet is innocently sensuous when liis mind permeates and illum- 
ines the senses ; when they, on the other hand, muddy the mind, 
he becomes sensual. Lowell, IV., p. 317. 
The sensual feryours of Swinburne's earlier poems. Dowdex, Tr, 

& St., p. 225. 
Passion rises aboye the sensuous, certainly aboye the merely sen- 
sual, or it has no staying power. Stedmax, Xat. & El. of Po- 
etry, p. 262. 
Sensuous (XV.) : Mil, Low. to present. 

Poetry . . . simple, sensuous, and passionate. Miltox, Mis., 

IIL, p. 473. 
A wild, conyulsed sensuousness in the poetry of the Micklle Ages, 
in which the things of nature begin to play a strange, delirious 
part Patee, Ap., p. 218. 
Sententious : Har. to present. 

A pithey and sententious proposition. T. Wilsox, Phet., p. 121. 
The moral sententioitsness of .'. . Timon of Athens. Hazlitt, 

El. Lit., p. 16. 
Antithetical and sententious to afPectation. Hallam, IL, p. 295. 
SENTIMENT (VI ). 

Until the middle of the eighteenth centnrv senti- 
ment denoted any reflection or opinion concerning 
facts, or upon questions which from their ^^ thought 
nature are incapable of definite solution and ^^ general, 
exact statement. The word '- sentiments " was uni- 
formly employed to indicate the thoughts expressed by 



272 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TIiRMS. 

tlie characters of a drama, or of any other literary pro- 
duction, — thoughts which revealed character, and served 
as indices for action ; which thus gave in a sense the 
ethical purpose, of which the plot development was 
the tangible outcome. 

Sentiment, — That wliercby they in speaking prove anytliing or set 
forth an opinion. Aristotle, Poetics, p. 21. 

Sentiment, — To it appertains all the effect that should be pro- 
duced by the language, — proving and refutation, producing 
emotion, . . . and exaggerated or reduced ideas. Id., p. 59. 

When objects of any kind are first ])resented to the eye or imagi- 
nation, the sentiment which attends tliem is obscured and con- 
fused. 1742. D. Hume, L, p. 274. 

Sentiments and understanding arc easily varied by education and 
example. Id., p. 164. 

Sentiment is only a return upon ourselves. Ideas relate to objects 
outside of us. Their number occupying the mind enfeebles the 
sentiment. 1759. Gibbon, IV. p. 78. 

In the latter portion of the eigliteenth century sen- 
timent was associated less with the thought of a liter- 
As pensive ^^^ production than formerly, and more with 
feeling:. ^^^ mental imagery. Sentiment was thought 

to consist not so much in definite expressions as in the 
general tone of the literary work. Sentiment repre- 
sented the contemplative attitude of mind attendant upon 
a somewhat intense and a continued form of aesthetic 
feeling. Sentiment, abstracted and followed for its 
own sake, was called sentimentalism. Sentiment itself 
was usually associated with passion and imagination, 
and was more or less under the influence of an ethical 
purpose. The term represents, however, at least in the 
present century, a conservative tendency in literature. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 273 

It may be F-^id to blend and modify the immediate 
iEsthetic effect by means of past aesthetic effects. It 
is always pensive ; it may even become conventional. 

Wordsworth was the first uiaii who impregnated all his descrip- 
tions of external nature with sentiment or passion. 1818. 
Wilson, Y., p. i02. 

Uichardson's nature is always the nature of sentiment and reflec- 
tion, not of impulse or situation. 1819. Hazlitt, Eng. Com. 
Writers, p. 160. 

A certain intenseness in the sentiment. 1S20. Id., Age of El., 

p. 177. ... 

They affect sentiment and passion, which, divested of imagination, 

are other names for caprice and appetite. 1821. Shelley, 

YII., p. 117. 
Sentiment is a complex thing, the issue of sensibility and imagina- 
tion; and without imagination sentiment is impossible. 1850. 

Whipple, Lit. and Life, p. 288. 
State truths of sentiment, and do not try to prove them. (Erom 

Joubert.) M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 286. 
Sentiment is intellectualizod emotion, emotion precipitated, as it 

were, in pretty crystals by the fancy. 1867. Lowell, II., 

p. 252. 
Wordsworth had much conventional sentiment. 1874. Pater, 

Ap., p. 38. 
Sentiment may be regarded as the synthesis of thought and feeling. 

T. Arnold, Hist, of Eng. Lit, p. 556. 
M. Coppee's poetry . . . possesses sentiment, but hardly passion. 

Dowden, St. in Lit., p. 421. 
Sentimental (XV.) : Gold, to present. 

I. Occasionally the term has designated a kind or 
species of dramatic composition. 

Sentimental Comedy, — in which the virtues of private life are ex- 
hibited rather than the vices exposed ; and the distresses rather 
than the faults of mankind make our interest in the piece. 
Goldsmith, I., p. 400. 

18 



274 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

II. Occasionally, also, the term reprepniits a fulness 
or richness of sentiment, not necessarily to be regarded 
as a literary fault or blemish. 

Sentimental and expressive inetaj)]ior. T. Warton, p. 661. 
Sentimental, — always ready to react against the despotism of fact. 
M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., p. 11. 

III. Usually, however, — during the present century 
almost uniformly, — the sentimental has indicated an 
excess of sentiment, a failure thorouglily to assimilate 
or fathom the subject-matter of literature, to see and 
feel it in all its relations : and hence a lack of balance 
between the sensuous and the more rational powers of 
the mind ; the rule of the sensuous, — of mere sensi- 
bility and feeling, — in matters where reason ought to 
hold sway ; the narrowing of OBSthetic feeling to the 
immediate impression, and the most elementary sense 
of contrast, thus basing it upon primitive sensation 
rather than regarding it as the culmination of all the 
normal activities of the mind. 

Unless seasoned and purified by humour, sensibility is apt to run 

wild ; will readily corrupt into disease, falseliood, and, in one 

word, sentimentality. Carlyle, I., p. 14. 
Carlyle's innate love of the picturesque ... is only another form 

of the sentiment alls m he so scoffs at. Lowell, II., p. 92. 
A laudable subjectivity dwells in naturalness, — the lyrical force of 

genuine emotions, including tliose animated by the Zeitgeist of 

one's own day. All other kinds degenerate into sentimentalism. 

Stedman, Nat. of Poetry, pp. 142, 143. 
Serene (XIX.): Hume to present. 

Pathetic yet august serenity. Dowdex, Shak., etc., p. 380. 
Serious (XIV.): Put., Jef. to present. 

Chaucer lacks the high seriousness of the great classics. M. 

Arnold, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 34. 
Severe (XIX.) h ;, Dry. to present. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 275 

The term " severe " represents a union of strength 
and definiteness. The strength must be restrained and 
regulated ; the definiteness manifests itself in the gen- 
eral conception or design of the literary work, in the 
use of language, in the mental imagery employed, in 
the logical construction, and in accuracy to the facts 
represented. 

Virpjil and Horace, the severest writers of the severest age. Dry- 

DEx, v., p. 110. 
Seventy of thoughtfuliiess. Goldsmith, IV., p. 378. 
No Greek severity, no defined outline. Bagehot, I., p. 73. 
Keats entirely fails of Milton's nervous severity of plirase. Low- 
ell, IV., p. 86. 
Severity and purity of the style. T. Arnold, p. 382. 
The spirit of . . . Antony and Cleopatra ... is essentially se- 
vere. That is to say, Shakespeare is faithful to the fact, Dow- 
den, Shak., etc., p. 308. 
ShaUow : De Quin. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 170. 
ShambUng : Vicar of Wakefield ... is shambling. Gosse, Hist. 

Eng. Lit., p. 3^9. 
Shapeless (II.) : AVil. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 86. 
Sharp (XX.) d : Camden to present. 

Ereshuess and sharpness. Jeffrey, L, p. 392. 
Bright sharp strokes. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 16. 
Sharp and delicate. Gosse, From Shak. etc., p. 188. 
Sharply-cut: Sharply-cut dialogue. Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 35. 
Shining (V.) : Dry., Jef. 

Exquisite and shining passages. Jeffrey, II., p. 92. 
Short : Wil. to present. 

Sudden, short, and strong. Wilson, VIIL, p. 17. 
Sho-wy (V.) : Haz. to present. 

Showy, Asiatic redundancy. Hazlitt, Sp. of A., p. 201. 
ShrevT-d (XX.) Z^: M. Arn. to present. Saintsburv, Hist. Er. Lit., 

p. 195. 
Shrill (X.) : Shrill, monotonous treble ... of Waller. Gosse, Erom 
Shak., etc., p. 156. 



276 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Shuffling (XVITI.) : Haz., Saints. 

Shuffling anapaest. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., p. 61. 

Sickly (XIV.): Swinburne, Mis., p. 82. 

Significant (XVI.): Put. to present. 

Silly (XX.) : Jef. to present. 

Distinguished silliness. Wilson, VI., p. 12G. 

Simpering: This simpering style ... of 1660-1700. Gosse, From 
Shak., etc., p. 223. 

Simpleness (XX.): Cole., Swin. 

A downwright simpleness under the affectation of simplicity. 
Coleridge, IV., p. 196. 

Simplicite: The real qualiry . . . the French call simplicite, the sem- 
blance simplesse. M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., p. 289. 

SIMPLICITY (HI). 

The history of the term "simi)licity" may be divided 

into four periods. Until the middle of the seventeenth 

... , century simplicitv indicated a sincere direct- 
As a unified -^ ^ 

and^impres- ^^^ss of conception in the author, unelaborated 
methods of composition, and unity of effect 
in the reader. 

Simple, naive, sincere. 1585. Puttenham, pp. 67, 68. 
(Of Spenser.) ... In all seemely simplicity, of handling his mat- 
ter and framing his words. 1586. Webre, p. 53. 

Prom about the middle of the seventeenth to within 

the latter portion of the eighteenth century, simplicity 

As a con- indicated a formal unity of design and con- 
structed . . , 
unity. struction m the composition, brought about 

by a refined method of selecting and arranging both 
the language and the thought, — a method so refined 
that it concealed its own artifice. The Greek Parthe- 
non, the sober coloring and severe outlines of classic 
architecture, gave the general image and idea which 
controlled the use of the term during this period. Sim- 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 277 

plicitj was placed in opposition to the subtle and fine, 
to conceit and the quaintness of wit, to Gothic orna- 
ments, epigrammatical conceits, turns, points, and quib- 
)jles, to the '' artificial and the fanciful," to " affectation " 
and "extraneous ornament," and to the '^distorted and 
unnatural." 

The simple manner, which, being the strictest imitation of nature, 
should of right be tlie completest in the distribution of its parts 
and symmetry of its whole, is yet so far from making any osten- 
tation of method, that it conceals the artifice as much as possible ; 
endeavoring only to express the effect of art under the appear- 
ance of the greatest ease and negligence. Shaftesbury, I., 
p. 202. 
Much less ought the low phrases and terms of art that are adapted 
to husbandry have any place in such a work as the Georgiac, 
which is not to appear in the natural simplicity and nakedness 
of its subject, but in the pleasantest dress that poetry can bestow 
on it. Addisox, I., p. loS. 
The sentiments of Chevy Chase . . . are extremely natural and 
poetical, and full of the majestic simplicity wliich we admire in 
the greatest of the ancient poets. 1710. Id., II., p. 384. 
The great beauty of Homer's language consists in a noble sim- 
plicity, and yet his diction, contrary to what one would imagine 
consistent with simplicity, is at the same time very copious. 
1708. Pope, VI., p. 13.*^ 
Simplicity passes for dullness, when it is not accompanied with 

great elegance and propriety. 1742. D. Hume, I., p. 243. 
Poetry cannot dwell upon the minuter distinctions by which one 
species differs from another, without departing from that sim- 
plicity of grandeur which fills the imagination. 1750. S. 
John SOX, 11. , p. 178. 

From near the middle of the eighteenth century until 
within the first few decades of the present century, 
simplicity in composition was thought to be derived en- 
tirely from the unity of literary impulse or As a unity of 

artistic im- 

incentive in the mind of the author. The puise. 



278 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

literary expression of this unified incentive, when for- 
mally or intellectually considered, might seem to be 
quite intricate and complex ; yet the emotional effect 
upon the reader was supposed to be always a counter- 
part of the original inspiration and conception in the 
mind of the author. 

Judge of tlie Faery Queeu by the classic models, and you are 
shocked with its disorder : consider it with an eye to its Gothic 
original, and you find it regular. Tlie unity and simplicity of 
the former are more complete : but the latter has that sort of 
unity and simplicity which results from its nature. 1762. 
Hum, IV., p. 279. 

Dryden . . . had so little sensibility of the power of effusions 
purely natural that he did not esteem them in others. Sim- 
plicity gave him no pleasure. 1781. S. Johnson, YIL, 
p. 340. 

Cultivate simplicity ; banish elaborateness ; for simplicity springs 
spontaneous from the heart, and carries into daylight its own 
modest buds, and genuine, sweet, and clear flowers of expres- 
sion. 1796. Lamb, Letters, L, p. 46. 

The unconscious simplicity of nature. 1820. Hazlitt, Age of 
EL, p. 96. 

Eugged simplicity. 1828. Carlyle, IL, p. 11. 

During the latter portion of the present century more 

attention has been given to the formal expression of 

.^ , the literary conception. The a;enuineness of 

As umty of J i & 

toec?ness 0?^ the author's incentive has often been held in 
statement. question. Simplicity borders closely upon 
'' simpleness," "the ordinary/' "commonness," "vul- 
garity," "baldness," and " povert)^ of language." Noth- 
ing is simple which essentially contradicts the facts of 
actual experience. Simplicity usually indicates an im- 
mediate perception or intuition, as it were, of truth and 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 279 

reality, and its most direct and unelaborated expres- 
sion in language, — occasionally it denotes also a unity 
of emotional effect. 

The characteristic of the classical literature is the simplicity with 
which the imagiuatiou appears in it. 1856. B age hot. Lit. St., 
L, p. 118. 
The direct intelligence of simple reason. 1872. Swinburne, Es. 

& St., p. 28. 
Simple, natural, and honest. Howells, Crit. & Fiction. 
Statuesquely simple. 1872. Lowell, IV., p. 232. 
Kingsley . . . tried with too obvious an eflPort to be simple and 

unaffected. 1879. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 408. 
This simplicity at first hand is a strange contrast to the sought out 

simplicity of Wordsworth. 1883. Pater, Ap., p. 222. 
The train of passion which the common movement of these various 
actions calls out in the sympathy of the reader is as simple as 
the plot itself is intricate. 1885. Moulton, Shak. as a D. A., 
p. 208. 
SINCERE (VII.) . 

The term '^sincere" has been much in use during 
the present century. It is aimed chiefly at false orna- 
ment and over-refinement in style, and it represents a 
union, so to speak, of moral incentive and power of 
artistic expression. Art must be not only spontane- 
ous, but it must be spontaneous with an inherent eth- 
ical purpose. Literature must represent life not only 
as it has been, but also as it is and will be : litera- 
ture expresses ideals, which control action ; litera- 
ture is thus an expression and controlling influence of 
real life, and sincerity is the first prerequisite in its 
production. 

Simple, naive, sincere. 1585. Puttenham, pp. 64, 68. 
Pope was incapable of a sincere thought or a sincere emotion. 
1851. De Quincey, XL, p. 125. 



280 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

The beauty of Milton's sonnets is their sincerity. 1819. 11a z- 

LiTT, Table Talk, p. 242. 
The sincerity and directness of the British taste. ISiO. De 
^ QUINCEY, X., p. 141. 

Lack of sincerity is always lack of triitli. 1S92. Stedaian, Nat. 
of Poetry, p. 233. 
Sinewy (XII.): B. Jon. to present. 

There be some styles again that have not less blood, but less flesli 
and corpulence. These are bony and siiiewey. B. Jonson, 
p. 66. 
Sing-song (II.): Sing-song of Collins' generation. Lowell, IV., 

p. 4. 
Singular (IX.) : Jef. to present. 

Singular though beautiful style. Jeffrey, II., p. 54. 
The truth is that all genius impUes originahly, and sometimes 
uncontrollable singularity. De Quince y, XL, p. 351. 
Sinuous (11.) : Lamb, Swin. Lamb, Letters, II., p. 79. 
Skill (V.)^: Camden to present. 

Skill, variety, efficacy, and sweetness, the four material points 

required in a poet. Camden, p. 337. 
That skill in the conduct of the scene . . . which is the result of 
art. HuRD, L, p. 350. 
Skipping (XVIII.) : Light skipping verse. Saintsbury, Hist. Er. 

Lit., p. 164. 
Slack (XII ) : Slackness and deviations . . . of Faery Queene. Saints- 
bury, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., p. 95. 
Slangy(I.): Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., p. 48. 
Slight: Homely, genial, and slight. Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 140. 
Slipper (XVlil.) : Put., Brooke. 

Sounds most flowing and slipper upon the tongue. Puttenham, 

p. 129. 
Slippered wording. Brooke, Tennyson, p. 62. 
Slipshod (XVIII.) : Swin. to present. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., 

p. 57.' 
Slovenly (XIX.) : Gold, to present. 

A slovenly sort of versification. Goldsmith, V., p. 160. 
Slow (XVIII.) : Put., B. Jon. to present. 

Of all Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth is the most rapid, Hamlet the 
slowest in movement. Coleridge, IV., p. 133, 



.4 HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 281 

Sly : J ef. to present. 

Sly luimour. Saintsbury, Es. in Eug. Lit., p. 329. 
Smart (V.) b : Gold, to present. 

Skill and smartness. Jeffkey, L, p. 16J?. 
Smiting: Smiting, clashing sound. Brooke, Tennyson, p. 389. 
Smooth (X.) : .Camden to present. 

In any smooth English verse of ten syllables, there is naturally 
a pause at the fourth, tifth, or sixth syllable. Pope, YL, 
p. 57. 
Massinger's verse is smooth rather than melodious ; the thoughts 
are not born in music, but mechanically set to a tune. Whip- 
ple, Lit. of Age of El., p. 183. 
Sober (XIX.) 6: Scott to present. 

Exactness and sobriety ... of Virgil. Scott, Life of Dryden, 
p. 348. 
Soft (X.) : Dry. to present. In considerable use. 

Some passages are beautiful by being sublime ; others by being 
soft. Addison, III., p. 283. 
Solecism (I.) : Dry. to present. 
Solemn (XIV.) : Put. to present. 

Solemnity and stateliness are Milton's chief characteristics. Lan- 
DOR, v., p. 561. 
Solid (XIII.) : T. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 308. 
Sombre (XIV.): Car. to present. 

Sombre beauties. Svs^^inburne, Es. & St., p. 303. 
Sonorous (X.) : Dry. to present. 

Sonorous, high, and pompous strain. Shaftesbury, I., p. 200. 
Soul (XXIL)6: WiL, M. Arn. 

Your fact or observation is not literature until it is put in some 
sort of relation to the soul. Buhrol'GHS, Indoor Studies, 
p. 232. 
The union of soul with intellect. M. Aenold, Cr. Es., 1st S., 

p. 301. 
Soul as opposed to mind in style . . . soul securing colour, as 
mind secures form. Pater, Ap., etc., p. 23. 
Sounding (X.) : Dry. to present. 

The sounding strain. Wilson, VIII., p. 41. 
Spacious (XI.) : Low. to present. 

Spacious style ... of Spenser. Lowell, IV., p. 307, 



282 A HISTORY OF EN G LIS 11 CniTICAL lEliMS. 

The xlncieiit Mariner has . . . breadth and space. Swinbukne, 
Es. & St. p. 26i. 
Sparkling : Haz. to present. 

S])arkling archaisms. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 115. 
Spasmodic (IL): Whip., Saints. Whipple, Es. & Rev., II., 

p. 19. 
Spirit (XII.) : Mil. to present. Much in use. 

I. Tone ; manner ; atmosphere. 

Style and spirit. Hazlitt, Age of EL, j). 119. 

II. Life ; feeling ; inner principle. 

To give to universally received truths a pathos and a spirit, which 
shall readmit them into the soul like revelations of the moment. 
Wordsworth, II., p. 63. 
Spiritual (XXII.) Z/: W^ords. to present. 

So spiritualized as to be above their sym|)athies Wilson, Vll., 

p. 297. 
Style being a visible emblem of spiritual traits. Stedman, Vic. 
Poets, p. 481. 
Splendid (XXII.) h : S. John, to present. 

Addison's style is splendid without being gaudy. Blair, Rhet., 
p. 209. 
Splendor (V.) : S. John, to present. 

Splendor of elegance. S. Jouxsox, VII. , p. 452. 
Spontaneous (VII.) : Cole, to present. Much in use. 

The significance of the term is chiefly negative. The 
spontaneous is that which is not imitated or elaborated, 
which is not attained by means of conscious design or 
method. As to the positive significance of the term, 
during the first portion of the present century, the spon- 
taneous was usually assumed to result only from im- 
pulse, feeling, and emotion ; during the latter portion 
of the century, there has been recognized a spontane- 
ity of intellect and even of taste. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 283 

Simplicity spriugs spoutaueous from the heart, and carries into 
daylight its owu modest buds, and genuine, sweet, and clear 
flowers of expression. Lamb, Letters, I., p. 46. 
Taste, however responsive to cultivation, is inborn, — as spontane- 
ous as insight. Stedman, Nat. of Poetry, p. 47- 
Arnold's . . . intellectual processes are spontaneous. Id., Yic. 
Poets, p. 91. 
Sportive (XVIL) : Sid., Chan, to present. Dowden, Tr. & St., 

p. 278. 
Sprightly (XV IIL) : S. John, to present. 

Sprightliness of poetry . . . clearness of prose. S. JoH^'SON, VIL, 
p. 63. 
Springy : Rapid and springy. Lowell, L, p. 294. 
Spurious (VIII.) ; Ros. to present. Dowden, St. in Lit., p. 40. 
Squalid: Whipple, Lit. of Age of EL, p. 247. 
Stable (XL): Hal, Ros. 

Stable or tangible sense. Rossetti, Pref. to Blake, p. cxxii. 
Stagnant (XII.) : Jef., Swin. JefiVey, 1., p. 415. 
Staid (XL) : Staid and serious. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 278. 
Stale (IX.) : Stale uncleanliness. Swinbukne, Mis., p. 86. 
Startling (IX.) : Jeffrey, L, p. 266. 
Stately (XL) : Sid. to present. 

I. As graceful massiveness, dignity, and poise. 

The stateliness of style removed from the rude skill of common 

ears. 1557. Surrey, in Lit. Centuria, L, p. 246. 
Gorboduc ... is full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases. 

SiDXEY, p. 47. 

Stately march of hexameters. T. Warton, p. 889. 

II. As unwieldy massiveness, and dull rigidity. 

A stiffness and stateliness and operoseness of style. Bentley, 
IL, p. 84. 

Cornelia is a model of stately dulness. Saixtsbtjry, Hist. Eng. 
Lit., p. 74. 
Statuesque (XTX.) d: Cole, to present. (See Sculpturesque.) 

Ancient art was . . . statuesque, modern, picturesque. Cole- 
ridge, lY., p. 58. 



284 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Steady (XL) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, I., [). 163. 
Sterile (XVI.): Eos. to present. 

Art severed from a social faith becomes, sooner or later, sterile. 
DowDEN, St. in Lit., p. 424. 
Stiff (XVIIL) : Rymer to present. 

Stiff and Gothic. Rymer, 2d Pt., p. 78. 
Stilted (VIL): Gosse, From Shak. etc., p. 86. 
Stinging (XXIL)^: Vigorous, stinging . . . lines. Rossetti, Lives, 

p. 186. 
Stirring (XII.) : T. Arn. to present. Stedman, Vic. Poets, p. 69. 
Stormy (XIL): Stormy and impulsive poems. Whipple, Es. & 

Rev., p. 294. 
Straight: Ascham, Spenser. 

Straight, fast, and temperate style. Ascham, III., p. 204. 

Your artificial straiglitness of verse. Spenser to Harvey, p. 36. 
Straight-forward : Wil. to present. In considerable use. 

The straiglit-forward and strong simplicity of nature and truth. 
Wilson, VI., p. 120. 

Classic straightforwardness. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 20. 
Strained (XIL) : Put. to present. 

Without strain or parade. Rossetti, Lives, p. 391. 
Strange (IX.) : Scott to present. 

Full of beauty and strangeness. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 230. 
STRENGTH (XIL): Dry. to present. 

Strength in composition results from the use of 

simple monosyllabic words, representing images which 

are vivid and familiar rather than refined and rare ; 

and from the most unelaborated methods of logical 

construction. The term has almost uniformly been 

associated with the Gothic, with feeling, and with pas= 

sion rather than with the more intellectual character 

istics of literature. 

Recent writers . . . elegant and glaring, Shakespeare . . strong 
and solemn. Pope, X., p. 5J^9. 

A clear expression belongs to the understanding, a strong expres- 
sion to the passions. Burke, p. 180. 



.4 HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 285 

And glut thyself with what thy womb devours. (Milton.) 
It is incredible how many disgusting images Milton indulges in. 
In his age, and a century earlier, it was called strength. Lan- 
DOE, lY., p. 515. 
In the storm and stress period in Germany . . . beauty seemed 
synonymous with strength. Carlyle, I., p. 58. 
Strenuous (XII.): Swin. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 369. 
Stress (XII.) : Intensity . . . and . . . stress. Dowdex, St. in 

Lit., p. 275. 
Strict: Ruskin. 

A strict and succinct style is that wliere you can take away notliing 
without loss. B. JoxsoN, Timber, p. 62. 
Striking (IX.): S. John, to present. Hallam, Lit. Hist., I., p. Io3. 
Studied (VII.) : J. War. to present. 

Stumbling (XYIII.) : Stumbling stanzas. Swinburne, Mis., p. 76. 
Stupid (XX.) <5: Gray to present. J. WHson, YL, p. 2S4. 
STYLE : Low. to present. 

I. An ornament or external glitter designed to ren- 
der the work striking and effective. 

Style . . . an ornament ada])ted to vulgar tastes. Aristotle, 
Khet., p. 204. 

II. A habit or method of writing acquired either by 
effort or without design. 

Style is a constant and continual phrase or tenor of speaking and 
writing . . . such as he either keepeth by skill, or holdeth on 
by ignorance. Puttenha:!iI, p. 162. 

III. During the latter portion of the present cen- 
tury, ^' style " has become an active critical term. It 
represents the literary or artistic personality of the 
author, permeating the thought and expression of the 
literary work and thus rendering its general ''tone" 
or "atmosphere" a direct reflection of the esthetic 
sense of the writer. 



286 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

Stylo . . . the establishment of a perfect niutual uiiderstandiug 

between the worker and bis material. Lowell, III., p. 37. 
Style . . . consists mainly in the absence of undue emphasis and 

exaggeration, in the clear uniform pitch which penetrates our 

interest and retains it. Id., p. 353. 
That fine efiluence of the whole artistic nature which can hardly 

be analyzed and which we term style. Dowden, St. in Lit., 

p. 192. 
The common and erroneous idea of style as the dress of thouglit, 

and the true definition of it as the incarnation of thought. 

Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., pp. 335, 336. 
Style is what a sentient being, when he tries to imitate, cannot 

help adding to the thing he renders. Symonds, Es., Sp. & 

Sug., p. 146. 
Suavity (XXII.) d : Scott to present. 

Suavity and grace. Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., p. 186. 
Subdued (XIX.) d : J. War. to present. 

Subdued passion. Poe, I., p. 304. 
Subjective : Whip, to present. 

Elizabethan style is . . . subjective rather than objective. Sted- 

MAN, Yic. Poets, p. 47. 

SUBLIME (XL). 

Until within the eighteenth century the sublime was 
thought to consist of bold figures of speech, a series 
As bold figu- of metaphors, which seemed in fancy to an- 

rative Ian- . . , . p 

guage. mhilate space and time, to brmg thmgs far 

apart together, and thus to violate "nature" and the 
well known experiences of actual life. With their at- 
tention centred upon the language of literature, the 
early critics considered the sublime as something either 
to be avoided or to be subordinated to more regulated 
methods of composition. 

Nothing is truly sublime that is not just and proper. 1681. 
Dryden, YL, p. 407. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 287 

To write tlius upon low subjects is really tlie true sublime of ridi- 
cule; it is the sublime of Don Quixote. 1726. Pope, YIII., 
p. 219. 

Too true it is that while a plain and direct road is paved to their 
vyj/os or sublime, etc. . . . The sublime of nature is the sky, 
tbe sun, moon, stars, etc. Swift, XIII., p. 32. 

It is easy to imagine that, amidst the several styles and manners 
of discourse or writing, the easiest attained and earliest prac- 
tised was the miraculous, the pompous, or what we generally 
call the subhme. Shaftesbury, I., p. 190. 

The eighteenth century was a period of transition 
from this gTammatical view of the "sublime" to the 
modern conception of the term. The term ^^ ^^^^ 
"sublime" referred chiefly to the thought of ^oSt'Sfd 
the composition. The thought must be im- ^"^^^^^y- 
pressive and striking; it must stir up in the mind of 
the reader a sort of passive excitation and surprise. 
In the philosophy of the eighteenth century, the sub- 
lime was traced to ideas of pain, themselves pleasur- 
able, with an accompanying paralysis of energy. In 
actual criticism the sublime was almost synonymous 
with the pathetic, as the pathetic was then understood. 
(See "Pathetic") The sublime represented a certain 
compass and vividness of thought, and sometimes of 
imagery, the outlines of which were often definitely 
marked, which did not usually reach out by suggestion 
toward the unknown and infinite, and which did not 
stand over, as it were, against the reader himself, and 
call out his reactive impulses. The sublime was a fas- 
cination and a pleasure, and the pleasure often sprang 
as much from the evident skill in execution as from 
the thought which was represented. 



288 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Nor is it sufficient for an Epic poem to be filled with such thoughts 
as are natural, unless it abound also with such as are sublime. 
1711. Addison, III, pp. 1S6, 187. 

Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and dan- 
ger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is couver- 
sant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to 
terror, is a source of the subhme. 1756. Burke, I, p. 74. 

Those feelings are delightful when we have an idea of pain and 
danger without being actually in such circumstances. Id, 
p. 84. 

The subhme and the pathetic are the two chief nerves of all genu- 
ine poesy. What is there transcendentally sublime or pathetic 
in Pope? 1756. J. Warton, I., p. vi. 
My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind, 
Some emanation of the all-beauteous mind. 
How oft when press'd to marriage have 1 said, 
Curse on all laws but those which love has made. (Pope.) 

This is . . . poetical and even sublime. Id, p. 306. 

Paradise Lost sometimes descends to the elegant, but its character- 
istic quality is sublimity. S. Johnson, YII, p. 131. 

During the present century — and to a certain ex- 
tent during the latter portion of the century preceding 
A. ...^r-a-n^c — ^lic tcmi '^sublimc" has represented not 

As supreme i 

nitude! fnd' vlvidness of immediate impression so much 
sugges on. ^^ suggestion of what lies beyond the imme- 
diate impression. There must be indefiniteness, ob- 
scurity, and mystery of some kind, and this must stir 
the deepest latencies of the intellectual powers. The 
thoughts and images represented must be directly re- 
lated to the most central interests of human life ; they 
must be imbued with passion ; they must in some man- 
ner be typical of the highest and most intense activity 
of which the human mind is capable. Occasionally 
this is attained by the representation of little more 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 289 

than mere physical po^ver, but more usually by sug- 
gesting and calling forth the very highest ethical ideals 
and purposes. 

The sublime must come unsought, if it come at all ; and be the 
natural offspring of a strong imagination. Blair, Rhet., p. 47. 

Greek art is beautiful . . . but Gothic art is sublime. 1810. 
Coleridge, IY., p. 235. 

It is the nature of thought to be indefinite ; definiteness belongs 
to external imagery alone. Hence it is that the sense of sub- 
limity arises, not from the sight of an outward object, but from 
the beholder's reflection upon it ; not from sensuous impression, 
but from the imaginative reflex. Id., p. 140. 

The kind of sublimity with which the English have always been 
chiefly delighted, consists merely in an exliibition of the strength 
of the human energies . . . e. g. Coriolanus, Richard the Third, 
Satan in Paradise Lost, etc. ISIO. Wilson, Y., p. 393. 

The terrific is sublime only when it fixes you in the midst of all 
your energies, and not when it weakens, nauseates, and repels 
you. 1S26. Laxdor, IY., p. 112. 

Sublimity is Hebrew by birth. 1S32. Coleridge, YI., 106. 

Let it be remembered that of all powers which act upon man 
through his intellectual nature, the very rarest is that which we 
moderns call the sublime. The Grecians had apparently no 
word for it, unless it were that which they meant by t6 aefivov : 
for yyfros was a comprehensive expression for all the qualities 
which gave a character of life or animation to the composition, 
— such, even, as were philosophically opposed to the subhme. 
In the Roman poetry, and especially in Lucan, at times also in 
Juvenal, there is an exhibition of a moral sublime, perfectly dis- 
tinct from anything known to the Greek poetry. 1839. De 
QUINCEY, X., p. 100. 

So long as a man continues artificial, the subhme is a conscious 
absurdity to him. 1871. Lowell, IY., p. 32. 
Subtle (Y.) b ; cf. (XX.) d : Put. to present. 

Delicate ^discrimination, springing from an unerring 
sense of native affinities and relations and the most 
penetrative intellectual acumen. 

19 



290 A IIISrORY OF ENCLJSII CRITICAL TERMS. 

In Gower's inventions ... is small subtlety. Puttenham, p. 76. 

Subtlety . . . nicety of distinction. S. Johnson, YII., p. 16. 

Subtle adjustment of the elementary sounds, of words themselves 
to the image or feeling they convey. Pater, Ap., p. .57. 
Succinct (XX.) &: Cam. to present. (See Strict.) 
Sudden (IX.) : Jef. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 
Sufficient: Sufficient and strong. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 126. 
Sugared : Sidney. 

Heliodorus in his sugared invention. Sidney, p. 11. 
SUGGESTIVE (XVI. ). 

The term ''suggestive" lias l)een prominent tlirough- 
out the criticism of the present centnry. It is often 
mentioned in coimection with the imagination, whose 
activity it in part represents. Tlie term refers prima- 
rily to the sentiment and imagery immediately repre- 
sented in the literary production. What this sentiment 
and imagery is suggestive of is usually left to be de- 
termined from each one's own interest and experience. 
In general, however, the suggestive denotes such a 
portrayal of details as by means of the association of 
ideas shall give glimpses into the depths of human char- 
acter, shall fill the mind with a sense of the illimitable 
nature of thought and feeling, and shall perhaps awaken 
half-slumbering longings and ideals. 

Suggestion doth assign and direct us to certain marks or places, 
which may excite our mhid to return and produce such knowl- 
edge as it hath formerly collected, to the end we may make use 
thereof. 1605. Eacon, Ad. of L., p. 156. (Oxford, 1891.) 

Painting gives the object itself. . . . Poetry suggests what exists 
out of it in any manner connected with it. But this last is the 
proper province of the imagination. 1818. Hazlitt, Eng. 
Poets, p. 14. 

The most striking characteristic of the poetry of Milton is the ex- 
treme remoteness of the associations by means of which it acts 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 291 

on the reader. Its effect is produced not so much by what it 
expresses as by what it suggests. 1825. Macaulay, I., p. 22. 
The truth is, painting and sculpture are literally imitative arts, 
while poetry is metaphorically so. ... I would rather call 
poetry a suggestive art. 1825. Bkyant, Prose, I., p. 5. 
Descriptive poets . . . forget that it is by suggestion, not cumu- 
lation, that profound impressions are made upon the imagina- 
tion. 1868. Lowell, III., p. 42. 
In Measure for Measure ... we have a real example of that sort 
of writing which is sometimes described as suggestive, and which 
by the help of certain subtly calculated hints only brings into 
distinct shape the reader's own half -developed imaginings. 1874. 
Pater, Ap., p. 179. 
Suitable (lY.) : Walton to present. 

Strokes of levity . . . unsuitcd to so grave and majestic a poem. 
J. Wahton, i., p. 391. 
Sumptuous (V.) : Imaginative and sumptuous. Rossetti, Lives, 

p. 31. 
Sunny (XIV.) Swin., Gosse. 

Bright and sunny. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 46. 
Superb (XXII.) <^: Wil, Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, Mis., p. 44. 
Superficial (XX.) : Gib. to present. 

Sidney Smith's mirth lies in the superficial relations of phenomena. 
Bagehot, Lit. St., p. 136. 
Superfluous : Ascham to present. 

When superfluousness of words is not occasioned by overflowing 
animal spirits . . . there is no worse sign for a poet. Hunt, 
Im. & Fancy, p. 41. 
Supple (XVIII.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 60. 
Supreme (XXII.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 72. 
Sure (VIII.) : Hal. to present. 

Sure facility ... of Waller. Hallam, IV., p. 233. 
Shakespeare himself, divine as are his gifts, has not, of the marks 
of the master, this one : perfect sureness of hand in his style. 
Alone of English poets . . . Milton has it ; he is our one . . . 
first rate master in the grand style. M. Arnold, Mixed Essays, 
p. 300. 
Surging (XVIII.) : Free, surging, melodious. Rossetti, Life of 
Keats, p. 179. 



292 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Sustained (XIII.) : Jef. to present. 

Sustained and continuous. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, p. 16. 
Sweeping (Xlll.): J. Wil. to present. 
SWEET (X.) : Cam. to present. Much in use. 

I. Often the term ''sweet" denotes the pleasing and 
attractive in composition attained through dehcacy and 
tranquil feehng, rather than by any manifestation of 
strength in the thought or emotion. 

llaleigli's Cynthia ... a fine and sweet invention. Harvky, 

Malone's Shakespeare, II., p. 570. 
The uttering sweetly and ])roi)crly the conceits of the mind . . . 

is the end of speech. Sidney, ]). 55. 
Sweet expressions of love. \V\\lt()N, Lives, ]). 121. 

II. More usually, however, sweetness lias direct ref- 
erence to the sound, to the musical properties of the 
composition. Sweetness represents that which in the 
sound charms and attracts, a certain smoothness, a 
gentle rhythm, and a harmony unbroken by jar or 
discord. 

Harmonious sweetness. Dryden, YII , p. 229. 

Pope's versification is tiresome from its excessive sweetness and 

uniformity. Hazlttt, Eng. Poets, p. 18. 
Sweetness ... a smooth progression between variety and same- 
ness, and a A^oluptuous sense of the continuous. Hunt, Im. & 
Fancy, p. 37. 
Sweet and manifold in cadence. Saintsbury, Hist. Fr. Lit., 
p. 63. 
STveUing (X.) : Sid. to present. 

Sw^elling style. Dryden, VI., p. 407. 
Swift (XYIII.) : Campion to present. 

The verse moves swiftly enough. Brooke, Tennyson, p. 114. 
Symbolical (XVI.) : External appearances . . . symbols of internal 
sentiment. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, p. 31. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 293 

Symmetry (II.)- Campion to present. 

Symmetry more than sensation is the effect which has an attraction 
for his genius. Moultox, Shak., etc. 
Sympathy (XV.): Jef. to present. 

A strange mixture of satire and sympatliy in all Crabbe's produc- 
tions. Jeffrey, II , p. 854. 
Sympathetic humor. Burroughs, Birds and Poets, p. 61. 
In Burns ... a sym[)atliy so vivid and intimate as to pass con- 
tinually into the domain of imagination. Rossetti, Lives, 
p. 200*^ 
Symphonical (X.) : Swinburne, Es. & St. p. 11. 
Systematic (II.) : Systematic as a country cemetery. Lowell, IV., 

p. 271.. 
Tact (\.)b: Jef. to present. 
Talent (V.)Z': S. John, to present. 
Tame (XII.) : Jef. to present. 

Tameness and poorness of the serious style of Addison and Swift. 
Jeffrey, I., p. 167. 
Tangible (IIL): Ilos. to present. 

No stable or tangible sense. Rossetti, Pref. to Blake, p. 

exxii. 
The pathos is more direct and tangible. Swinburne, Es. & St., 
p. 26. 
Tardy (XVIII.) : Jef., How. 

Tardy, laborious, and obscure. Jeffrey, II., p. 43. 
TASTE (XXII.) ^. / 

The term " taste " has always represented to a cer- 
tain extent both native sensibility and an instinct which 
As a desire has been acquired and cultivated by the 

for the novel i f i. it -ii tt x-i 

and striking:, study ot literature already written. Until 
the middle of the eighteenth century there were two 
uses of the term ''taste." Often the term was em- 
ployed to characterize a crude preference for the more 
glaring and startling features of literature, a perverse 
relish for literarv work which was not in accord with 



294 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

the principles of literature already well established. 
This was usually characterized as '' false " taste. 

Style seems to be an ornament adapted to vulgar tastes. Aris- 
totle, Rliet., p. 204. 

A wrong artificial taste . . . formed . . . upon little fanciful au- 
thors and writers of epigram. 1710. Addison, II., p. 374. 

Those intrigues and adventures to which the romantic taste has 
confined modern tragedy. Tickell, in Arber's Garner, VI., 
p. 520. 

More often taste denoted the appreciation of liter- 
ature in so far as it agreed with the most approved 
As a cuiti- ^^^^ most firmly established methods of lit- 
ofthVpro-^ erary composition. This was ''true" taste, 
pne es. ^^^ merely taste without any qualifying ad- 

jective. Usually, liowever, both a ''false" and a "true" 
taste were recognized and were kept distinct from each 
other. 

Metaphors must be constructed on principles of analogy (propor- 
tion), else they will be sure to appear in bad taste. Aristotle, 
Rhet., p. 210. 

Taste is not to conform to the art, but the art to the taste. 1710. 
Addison, II., p. 292. 

A just taste cannot be obtained without the antecedent labour of 
criticism. Shaftesbuhy, III., pp. lltt, 115. 

It is rare to meet with a man who has a just taste without a sound 
understanding. 1742. D. Hume, I., p. 278. 

Tastes unformed from the true relish of possibility, propriety, sim- 
plicity, and nature. 1756. J. Warton, II., p. 21. 

Taste comes from two sources : — 

1. Sensibility, — if lacking, one wants taste. 

2. Judgment, — if lacking, one has bad taste. 1756. Burke. 
p. 64. 

During the present century there are also two uses 
of the term. Often it denotes the acquired feelings 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 295 

and instincts which prompt to a judgment As conven- 
of literature in accordance with literary prin- appreciation, 
ciples already well established. In this sense of the 
term, taste has almost uniformly been regarded as an 
inadequate test of the aesthetic value of a literary pro- 
duction. It is wholly conservative, and opposes all 
progressive literary tendencies. 

It is for the most part in our skill in manners, and in the observ- 
ances of time and place, and of decency in general . . . that 
what is called taste . . . consists, and which is in reality no 
other than a more refined judgment. 1756. Burke, I., p. 63. 

Every author, as far as he is great and at the same time original, 
has had the task of creating the taste by which he is to be en- 
joyed. 1802. Wordsworth, IL, p. 125. 

Proportion and congruity . . . are subjects upon whicli taste may 
be trusted, since . . . the mind is then passive. Id., p. 127. 

Taste ... is representative of our past conscious reasonings, in- 
sights, and conclusions. 1817. Coleridge, III., p. 428. 

Classical taste and sound reason. 1838-39. Hallam, II., 
pp. 23, 24. 

Good taste is an excellent thing when it confines itself to its own 
rightful province of the proprieties. 1871. Lowell, TV., 
p. 21. 

Taste ... is in reality condensed experience. . . . But the judi- 
cial attitude of mind is itself a barrier to appreciation, as being 
opposed to that delicacy of receptiveness which is a first condi- 
tion of sensibility to impressions of literature and art. Moul- 
TON, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist pp. 6, 7. 

More often, perhaps, taste has represented both cul- 
tivated instinct and native sensibility, — sensibility 
which is open to impressions from actual As a cum- 

vfttcd. dcvcl- 

life as vrell as from literature, and which is oping appre- 
ciation of 
susceptible to nevr forms of beauty as well literature. 

as to those which are already familiar. Used in this 



296 A in STORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

sense, taste is the exact measure of the extent and 
limits of literary art at any given stage of its de- 
velopment. 

A strong imagination, the parent of what we call true taste. 1751. 
HuRD, I., p. 282. 

The principal ingredient in the composition of taste is a natural 
sensibiHty. 1761. Goldsmith, I., p. 324. 

One . . . must have sensibiUty before he feels those emotions with 
which taste receives tlie impressions of beautj. 1761. Gold- 
smith, I., p. 327. 

Virtue and taste are built upon the same foundation of sensibihty. 
Id., p. 331. 

Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer 
taste and genius. J. Eeynolds, L, p. 56. 

Taste is nothing but sensibihty to the diiferent degrees and kinds 
of excellence in the works of art or nature. 1S19. Hazlitt, 
Sk. & Es., pp. 158, 159. 

I would reverse the rule, and estimate every one's pretensions to 
taste by the degree of their sensibility to the highest and most 
varied excellence. 1819. Id., p. 164. 

Taste relates to that which ... is calculated to give pleasure. 
Now to know what is calculated to give pleasure, the way is to 
inquire what does give pleasure : so that taste is, after all, much 
more a matter of fact and less of theory than might be imagined. 
Id., p. 170. 

Taste is a sense to discern and a heart to love and reverence all 
beauty, order, goodness. 1827. Carlyle, L, p. 34. 

Taste : a . . . noble sense of harmony and high poetic propriety. 
1867. SwixBURNE, Es. & St., p. 141. 

Into the mind sensitive to "form," a flood of random sounds, 
colours, incidents, is ever penetrating from the world without, 
to become, by sympathetic selection, a part of its very structure, 
and in turn, the visible vesture and expression of that other 
world it sees so steadily within, nay, already, with a partial 
conformity thereto, to be refined, enlarged, corrected at a hun- 
dred points; and it is just there, just at those doubtful points. 



A HISTORY OF ESGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 297 

that the function of style, as tact or taste, intervenes. 18S8. 
Pater, Ap., pp. 28, 29. 
The truth is that taste, however responsive to cultivation, is in- 
born, as spontaneous as insight, and indeed with an insight of 
its own. 1892. Stedman, Nat. of Poetry, p. 47. 
Tautology (XIX.) b : Bentley to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., 

p. 188. 
Tawdry (Y.) : Haz. to present. 

Frivolous and tawdry ornament. Macaulay, IV., p. 380. 
Technical : Gib. to present. 

The diapason closing full in man. (Dryden.) 
"Diapason" is too technical. S. Joh"nson, YIL, p. 324. 
Technique : Sir Thomas Browne . . . stood in need of technique, of 
a formed taste in literature, of a literary architecture. Pater, 
Ap., etc., p. 130. 
Tedious (XXII.) h : Gos. to present. 

Avoid prolixity and tediousness. Gascoigne, pp. 39, 40. 
The tedious historic style. Campbell, L, p. 11. 
Scott was often tediously analytic. Howells, Crit. & Piction, 
p. 21. 
Tedium: Bombast and tedium. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 69. 
Telling : Low., Gosse. 

Original and telling in construction. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. 
St., p. 294. 
TEMPERATE (XIX.) ^: Ascham, Jef. to present. 

The direct significance of the term is chiefly nega- 
tive. Temperance is the absence of excess in any 
form. But it ahiiost invariably denotes a moderation 
of passion or feeling, and thus it becomes associated 
with the judicious, with propriety, with all the terms 
that might be classified under the conception of the 
classical. 

Temperance is a measuring of affections according to the will of 

reason. T. Wilsois^, Rhet., p. 38. 
Temperance and propriety of aU the delineations of passion. Jef- 

ruEY, I., p. 394, 



298 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL' TERMS. 

Virgil ... is temperate, chaste, judicious. Landor, III., p. 473. 

Temperance of tone . . . makes The Deserted Village classical. 
Lowell, IV., p. 370. 
Tender : Dry. to present. 

A delicacy and tenderness. De Quincey, III., p. 37. 
Tenuity: Tenuity and caprice. Rossetti, Pref. to Blake, p. cxxxi. 
Terrible (XII.) : Scott to present. 

The tragic and the terrible. Dowden, Shak., etc., p. 23. 
Terse (XIX.) d : Dekker to present. 

Weight and terseness of his maxims. Jeffrey, II., p. M9. 
Theatrical: Swin., Dow. 

Theatrical observance of effect. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 57. 
Thin : Whip, to present. 

Light and thin. Whipple, Es. & Eev., II., p. 57. 
Thoughtful (XX.) : Whip, to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 2il. 
Thrilling (XXII. )Z' : Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., 

p. 59. 
Tightness : Tightness of phrase. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., 

p. 286. 
Timid (XIV.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 45. 
Tinsel (V.) : Tinsel and embroidery. Jeffrey, I., p. 412. 
Tiresome (XXII.) Z* : T. War. to present. 

Tiresome harmony. Stephen, L, p. 135. 
Titanic: A Titanic or Cyclopean style. Swinburne, Mis., p. 98. 
Tone (XIII.) : Jef. to present. 

Tone, not words, is w4iat distinguishes the master. Lowell, III., 
p. 41. 
Topographical : Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 89. 
Tormented : Homer's plain thought is tormented, as the French would 

say. M. Arnold, Gel. Lit., p. 166. 
Tortuous (II.) : Plaz. to present. 

Tortuous, long-winded verbosities. Carlyle, II., p. 82. 
Tortured (II.) : J. War., Gosse. 

Tortured, fantastical, rhetorical. Gosse^ Hist. Eng. Lit., III., 
p. 77. 
Touching (XVII.) d : Elair to present. 

Sweet and touching. Jeffrey, II., p. 464. 
Tough: B. Jonson's tough diction. Whipple, Es. & Rev., II., 

p. 33. 



.4 HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 299 

TRAGIC (XYII.) Ij : K. James to present. 

I. As a purely classifying tei^m, tragedy gradually 
became widely distinguished from comedy, giving rise 
to an intermediate form of the drama between them, 
tragi-comedy. (See " Comedy.") As thus employed, 
the tragic had no immediate critical significance. 

Tragedy represents men better than tliey are^ comedy ^orse. 
Aristotle, Rliet., p. 9. 

II. Recently, the word has come somewhat into use 
as an active critical term, representing that which is 
both striking and strongly pathetic, which, by arousing 
the imagination and sympathies of the reader, reveals 
the profundity and sublimity of human character. 

Dante . . . did not nnderstand by the tragic style what we under- 
stand by it, but merely the style of grand and sublime poems, 
such as the JEneid. T. Arnold, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 495. 
Humour . . . united with his tragic and imaginative powers, 
makes Shakespeare. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 78. 
Trailing (XVIIL): Heavy and trailing. M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., 

p. 147. 
Transcendental : Low. to present. 

In theory, the transcendental is that which can be 
represented only indirectly by means of symbols or by 
suggestion ; that which completely surpasses adecjuate 
explanation or definition. Li actual criticism it is usu- 
ally associated with the vague and obscure. 

To tlie transcendentalist . . . the origin and existence of Xature 
is greatly simplified; the old hostihty of matter is at an end, for 
matter is itself annihilated. Cirltle, IL, p. 205. 

All poetry must to a great extent be transcendental. "Whipple, 
Es. & Rev., p. 229. 



yy 



300 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Transcendental subtlety of " No, Time, thou sbalt not boast that I 

do change," etc. Lowell, III., p. 61. 
The word transcendental may be used in both a definite and a 
vague sense ; in a definite sense as opposed to the empirical way 
of thinking. . . . The transcendentalist thinker believes that the 
mind contributes to its own stores ideas or forms of thought not 
derived from experience. Dowden, St. in Lit., p. 47- 

Transitory (XL): Words., Ros. Wordsworth, IL, p. 63. 

Translucent (HI.): Simple aod translucent. Stedman, Vic. Poets, 
p. 5i. 

Transparent (IIL) : T. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., 
p. 154. 

Tremulous : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 68. 

Trenchant (XX.) d : Trenchant concision of style. Swinburne, 
Mis , p. 319. 

Trite (IX.): J. War. to present. 

In a court poem all should be trite and on an approved model. 
Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 141. 

Triumphant: Swinburne, Mis., p. 119. 

Trivial (XI.) : Dry. to present. 

Too trivial and common to excite any emotion whatever. Bryant, 
Prose, I., p. 13. 

Tropical (XIX.) 6: In the Eeligio Medici ... are many things de- 
livered rhetorically, many expressions tlierein merely tropicah 
1635. Sir T. Browne, Intr. to Rehgio Medici. 

Trumpet-notes : Swinburne, Mis., p. 147. 

Trumpet-tones (X.): Bos. Dowden, Shak., etc., p. 81. 

TRUTH (VIII.). 

Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century the 

term " truth " usually represented something external 

As historical ^^ ^^^^ mind, something more or less histori- 

^^^^' cal in its nature. In this general use of the 

term, two special meanings are to be distinguished. 

Often truth was associated with probability, or was 

placed in opposition to fable or fiction. When tluis 

employed, the term signified that which had actually 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 301 

occurred in the past, historical events considered ex- 
ternally, rather than as to their moral and psychical 
significance. 

But now it may be alleged that if this imagining of matters be so 
fit for the imagination, then must the historian needs surpass, 
who bringeth you images of true matters, such as indeed were 
done, and not such as fantastically or falsely may be suggested 
to have been done. 1583. Sidney, p. 18. (Cook.) 

The great art of poets is either the adorning and beautifying of 
truth, or the inventing pleasing and probable fictions. Dhy- 
DEN, XV:, p. 408. 

For as truth is the bound of historical, so the resemblance of truth 
is the utmost limit of poetical liberty. 1650. Hobbes, IV., 
pp. 451, 452. 

We can always feel more than we can imagine, and . . . the most 
artful fiction must give way to truth. 1753. S. Johnson, IV., 
p. 79. 

Shakespeare's plots are generally borrowed from novels. . . . The 
mind which has feasted on the luxurious wonders of fiction, has 
no taste for the insipidity of truth. 1765. Id., V., p. 125. 

The portrait . . . has unrivalled force and beauty, with historic 
truth. 1820. Hazlitt, Age of EL, p. 129. 

Occasionally, however, even" to the present, truth has 
denoted not something historical, but whatever exists 
at any given time, and can be considered as ^^ current 
an actually ascertained fact. But external ^^^^* 
truth as an ascertained fact, and truth as a historical 
fact are almost identical with each other. The external 
fact, in order to be ascertained, must represent a com- 
pleted experience, and has thus become historical. 
Hence it is often impossible to distinguish this use of 
the term "truth" from the preceding use. 

Natural, just, and true. Eyxer, 2d Pt., p. 79. 

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by caUing imagi- 



302 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

nation to the help of reason. 1781. S. Johnson, VII., 

p. 125. 
I cannot agree that this exactness of detail produces heaviness ; on 

the contrary, it gives an appearance of truth. 1819. Hazlitt, 

Eng. Com. Writers, p. 159. 
I confess that I do not care to judge any work of the imagination 

without first of all applying this test, Is it true? Howells, 

Crit. & Fiction, p. 99. 

Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century 
truth has usually indicated some capacity or power of 
As esthetic ^^^^ mind. In the early portion of the pres- 
principie. ^j^^ century truth very often represented the 
intuitive perception of beauty, the aesthetic apprehen- 
sion of more essential relations in the ordinary events 
of experience than ordinary experience itself affords. 

All beauty is truth. Shaftesbury, I., pp. 110, 111. 

Not historically true, but poetically beautiful. 1756. J, War- 
ton, I., p. 36. 

In those species of poetry tliat address themselves to the heart, 
and would obtain their end, not through the imagination, but 
through the passions, there the liberty of transgressing nature 
is infinitely restrained; and poetical truth is, under these cir- 
cumstances, almost as severe a thing as historical. 1762. 
HuRD, lY., p. 325. 

What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth, whether it 
existed before or not. 1817. Keats, Letters, pp. 41, 42. 

To the genuine artist, truth, nature, and beauty are almost differ- 
ent names for the same thing. 1817. Hazlitt, Eound Table, 
p. 106. 

(Of Wordsworth.) The force, the originality, the absolute truth 
and identity with which he feels some things makes him indif- 
ferent to so many others. 1825. Id., Sp. of Age, p. 163. 

During the present century truth has also denoted 
the ethical principles of conduct, the instincts and im- 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 803 

pulses which lead to right action. It is usually as- 
sumed, and often asserted, that aesthetic truth and 
moral truth are fundamentally one and the ., ^^^. 

-' As moral 

same ; that the ethical impulse to do and the p^^^^p^^- 
qestlietic impulse to create are, to a certain extent at 
least, identical with each other. The tendency to thus 
identify aesthetic with moral truth has been more pro- 
nounced during the latter portion of the century than 
during the earlier portion. 

To give to universally received truths a pathos and spirit, which 
shall readmit tliem into the soul like revelations of the moment. 
1811. Wordsworth, II., p. 63. 

Rescues admitted truths from the neglect caused by the very cir- 
cumstance of their universal admission. 1825. Coleridge, I.; 
p. 117. 

Moral truths which find an echo in our bosoms. 1825. Bryant, 
L, p. 12. 

The poetry of Burns . . . has, beyond all that ever was written, 
this greatest of all merits, intense, life-pervadiug, and life-breath- 
ing truth. 1841. Wilson, Vll., p. 3. 

It is astonishing how large a harvest of new truths would be 
reaped simply through the accident of a man's feeling, or being 
made to feel more deeply than other men. 1845. De Quince y, 
XL, p. 315. 

Truth to nature can be reached ideally, never historically ; it must 
be a study from the life, and not from the scholiasts. 1866. 
Lowell, Prose, II., p. 128. 

Your historian with absolutely truthful intention . . . must needs 
select, and in selecting assert something of his own humour, 
sometbing that comes not of the world without but of a vision 
within. 1888. Pater, Ap., p. 5. 

All beauty is in the long run only finesse of truth. Id., p. 6. 

There is no beauty worthy of the name without truth. J. A. 
Symonds, Es., Sp., & Sug., p. 104. 
Tumid (XIX.) b : T. War. to present. 

Bidiculously tumid. S. Johnson, VIIL, p. 210. 



804 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Tuneful (X.) : Swiu. to present. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 219. 
Tuneless (X.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 224. 
Turbid (II.) : Lan. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65. 
Turgid (X.) : S. John, to present. 

There is nothing turgid in his dignity. S. Johnson, III., 
pp. 83, 84. 
Turn: Words, to present. 

Dramatic turn of plot. Wordswoeth, III., p. 303. 
Ugly (XXII.) b : Ugliness and coarseness. Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., 

p. 178. 
Uncertain (III.): S. John, to present. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., 

p. 287. 
Unconscious (YII.) : Jef. to present. 

Composed, calm, unconscious. Jeffrey, L, p. 225. 
UNDERSTANDING (XX.). 

The word has perhaps never been employed as an 
active critical term. It has, however, exercised a con- 
siderable schematizing influence over active critical 
terms, being considered as an ally, and in a sense as 
the source of taste, of proportion, and of external pro- 
priety. It has been placed in opposition occasionally 
to reason, and always to the imagination. The word 
has not been in much favor with the critics during the 
present century. 

It is rare to meet with a man who has a just taste without a sound 
understanding. Hume, I., p. 278. 

Whenever the wisdom of our Creator intended that we should be 
affected with anything ... he endued it with powers and prop- 
erties that prevent the understanding, and even the will ; which, 
seizing upon the senses and imagination, captivate the soul be- 
foi^ the understanding is ready either to join with them or to 
oppose them. Burke. 

Enthusiasm sublimates the understanding into the imagination. 
Lowell, Lat. Lit. Es., I., p. 19G. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 305 

Unearthly : Mac, Whip. 

Wild, weird, unearthly. Whipple, Am. Lit., p. 87. 
Unexpected (IX.) : J. War. to present. 

Wit discloses . . . some unexpected resemblance or connection. 
Hunt, Wit and Humour, p. 8. 
Ungainly (II.) : Mor. Saintsbury, Hist. Eug. Lit., II., p. 155. 
Unhewn (11.) : Hough and unhewn plots. Swixburxe, Es. & St., 

p. 283. 
Unicity (XIIL): Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 291. 
Uniform (II.) : Dry. to present. 

There is no uniformity in the design of Spenser. Drtden, XIIL, 

P-17. 
The uniformity of cadence may conspire with the lusciousness of 
style to produce a sense of satiety in the reader. Hallam, II., 
p. 196. 
The needful qualities for a fit prose are regularity, uniformity, pre- 
cision, balance. M. At^nold, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 39. 
Unique (IX.) : Jef. to present. 

Swift is unique and inimitable. Jefeeey, L, p. 168. 
UNITY (XIIL). 

Previous to the present century the term "unity" 
was employed in criticism chiefly to denote certain 
formal rules and methods of plot construe- As continuity 

of scenic 

tion. The action represented must be based effect, 
upon a single story or fable ; the scene of the action 
must not be changed ; and the time included in the 
representation must be confined as nearly as possible 
to a single day of twenty-four hours. These rules, 
however, were always put upon the defensive in Eng- 
lish criticism. The best dramatists did not conform 
to them. This use of the term had more influence in 
theoretical discussion than it had in actual criticism. 

Unity : requires emphasis of tlie general plot. Dkydex, XIIL, 
p. 109. 

20 



306 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The old Scotch ballad Child Maurice is divine. Aristotle's best 
rules are observed in it in a manner that shews the author never 
had heard of Aristotle. It begins in the fifth act of the play. 
You may read it two thirds through without guessing what it is 
about ; and yet when you come to the end, it is impossible not 
to understand the whole story. 1758. Gray, II., p. 316. 

The Eaery Queen . . . has that sort of unity and simphcity which 
results from its nature. 1762. HiiiiD, IV., p. 279. 

The unity of action ... is often found in Gothic fables. Id., 
p. 308. 

The unity of action : The soul seeks it in all fiction and In all 
truth. 1831. Wilson, VIIL, p. 397. 

The " Unities " inapplicable to modern subjective literature. Id., 
pp. 402-4. 

Occasionally during the latter portion of the eigh- 
teenth century, and during all of the present century, 
As continuity the term "unity" has represented an activity 

of thouglit 

and feeling, in the mind either of the author or of the 
reader ; if in the mind of the author, the unifying prin- 
ciple is the imagination ; if in the mind of the reader, 
the unity is one of mental impression, of emotional 
effect. But whether referring to the active creation 
of literature, or to its more passive appreciation, unity 
is never regarded as depending upon formal regularity 
within the composition itself. Unity represents an 
imaginative blending of the different parts of a com- 
position with one another, — a continuity of thought 
and feeling. 

Instead of unity of action, I much prefer the words homogeneity, 
proportionateness, and totality of interest. 1810. Coleridge, 
lY., p. 110. 

Lamb . . . had more sympathy with imagination where it gathers 
into the intense focus of passionate phrase, than with tliat higher 
form of it where it is the faculty that shapes, gives unity of de- 
sign, and balanced gravitation of parts. 1868. Lowell, III., p. 30. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 307 

In these later plays, unity is present tlirongh tlie virtue of one liv- 
ing force, which animates the whole. The unity is not merely 
structural but vital. Dowdex, Shak., p. 60. 
That a play should impress itself upon our minds as a unity is only 
another way of saying that it is a work of art : it is a difierent 
thing when this impression of unity seems to be analysable, 
and can be wholly or partially formulated in words. 18S5. 
MouLTON, Shak. as a Dramatic Artist, p. 276. 
Just there in that vivid single impression left on the mind when all 
is over, not in any mechanical limitation of time and place, is the 
secret of the " unities " — the true imaginative unity — of the 
drama. 1889. Pater, Ap., p. 212. 
Unshackled: Free and unshackled movement. Saintsbury, Hist. 

Eng. Lit., p. 301. 
Unwieldy (XYIII.) : J. Wil. to present. 

Clumsy and unwieldy. Wilson, YL, p. 123. 
Upright: Swinburne. 

Manful, straightforward, and upright. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., 
p. 107. 
Urbanity (Y.) : Dry. to present. 

Urbanity ... a style of speaking which exhibits in the choice of 
words, in tone, and in manner, a certain taste of the city, and a 
tincture of erudition derived from conversation with the learned; 
something, in a word, of which rusticity is the reverse. Quin- 
TILIAN, YI., p. 433. 
His urbanity, that is, his good manners, are to be commended. 

Dryden, XIII., p. 88. 
Dr. Newman's works are stamped throughout with a literary qual- 
ity very rare in this country, urbanity . . . the tone of the city, 
of the centre, the tone which always aims at a spiritual and in- 
tellectual effect, and not excluding the use of banter, never dis- 
joins banter itself from politeness, from felicity. M. Arnold, 
Or. Es., 1st S., pp. 60, 67. 
Vacuity : Hal., Swin. Swinburne, Chapman, p. 92. 
Vague (III.) : Words, to present. 

Yague, wordy. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 8. 
Vain (XIY.): A vain and verbose eloquence. Swinburne, Es. & 
St., 11. 270. 



808 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Vapid (XII.) : Mor., Gosse. 

7ull of vapid conceits. Gosse, Life of Congreve, pp. 64, 65. 
Vaporous: Slielley's poetry is often vaporous and unreal. Dowden, 

Tr. & St., p. 102. 
VARIETY (IX.). 

The term "variety" was much used by the critics 
previous to the present century. Variety was usually 
As methodic ^^g^^'ded as forming no real contradiction to 
irregularity, q^.^j^j. ^^^ regularity in literature. It rep- 
resented, so to speak, a regulated method of apparently 
violating regularity, a means of avoiding complete uni- 
formity and monotony. Nature was usually employed 
to illustrate the relations between variety and regularity, 
but nothing could be more methodic and orderly than 
nature as it was conceived of daring the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries. There is found mentioned 
variety of language, of versification, of illustration, of 
figures of speech, of images, of sentiments, and of plot 
construction ; but whether referring to any part of the 
composition, or whether referring to it as a whole, 
variety, it was usually asserted or assumed, was en- 
closed and controlled by an encompassing regularity. 

The order of the spheres . . . variety of tlie seasons. 1579. 

GossoN (Arber), p. 26. 
The recreations of his youth were poetry, in whicli he was so tiappy, 
as if nature and all lier varieties had been made only to exercise 
his sharp wit and higb fancy. 1640. Walton, Lives, p. 53. 
Stanyhurst . . . revived by his ragged quill such carterly variety : 
Then did he make heaven's vault to rebound. 
With rounce robble bobble, 
Of ruffe raffe roaring, 
With thick thwack thurly bouncing. 

1590. Nash, Lit. Cen., II., p. 241. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 809 

Variety, as it is too often managed, is too often subject to breed 
distraction. 1679. Dryden, YI., pp. 133, 134. 

The genius of the English cannot bear too regular a play ; we are 
given to variety. 1690. Id., YII., p. 313. 

In the end of the sentence, chiefest regard is to be had ; because 
the fall of the sentence is most marked, and therefore, lest it fall 
out to be harsh and unpleasant both to the mind and ear, there 
must be most variety and change. . . . Now this change must 
not be above six syllables from the end, and that must be set 
down in feet of two syllables. Hobbes, YI., p. 520. 

Triplets and Alexandrines, inserted by caprice, are interruptions of 
that constancy to which science aspires. And though the va- 
riety which they produce may very justly be desired, yet, to 
make our poetry exact, there ought to be some stated mode of 
admitting them. 1781. S. Johnson, YII., p. 347. 

Occasionally, however, variety referred not so much 
to a quality of the composition as to a tendency of 
the mind. When thus employed, variety ^^ irregu- 
represented the overflow of native mental ^^^^• 
power and energy in literary composition, the asser- 
tion of the instinctive sense of form and method as 
against the rules and methods already established. 
This tendency toward change was sometimes charac- 
terized as " Gothic conceit," sometimes as '^ the exu- 
berance of genius;" but so long as this change was 
expressed chiefly by means of the term ''variety," it 
was not regarded with much favor in criticism. 

And seek for that variety in his own ideas which the objects of 
sense cannot afford him. 1750. S. Johnson, II., p. 30. 

There is nothing more prejudicial to the grandeur of buildings than 
to abound in angles ; a fault obvious in many; and owing to an 
inordinate thirst for variety, which, whenever it prevails, is sure 
to leave very little true taste. 1756. Bukke, 1., p. 103. 

Shakespeare, to enrich his scene with that variety which his exu- 
berant genius so largely supplied. 1749. Hued, I., p. 69. 



310 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The great source of pleasure is variety. Uniformity must tire at 
last though it be uniformity of excellence. We love to expect ; 
and when expectation is disappointed or gratified, we want to be 
again expecting. 1781. S. Johnson, YII., p. 151. 
Varnished (V.) : Whip, to present. 

Ehetorical varnish. Whipple, Es. & Hev., II., p. 76. 
Vast (XI.) : Haz. to present. 

The thoughts are vast and irregular. Hazlitt, Age of EL, p. 44. 
Vaulting (XVIII.): Dowden. 
Vehemence (XII.): T. Wil. to present. 

Vehemence of words full often helps the matter forward. T. Wil- 
son, Rhet., p. 140. 
The affection arousing the mind excites a large stock of spirit and 

vehemence. Hume, I., p. 262. 
More vehemence than truth, more heat than light. M. Arnold, 
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 270. 
Veracity (VIII.) : Emerson to present. 

Veracity, the truthfulness to fact. Dowden, St. in Lit., p. 277- 
Verbiage (XIX.) d : Poe to present. 

Prolixity and verbiage. Saintsbuky, Hist. Er. Lit., p. 146. 
Verbose (XIX.) b : Put. to present. 

Long-winded verbosities. Caklyle, II., p. 82. 
Verisimilitude (VIII.) : Scott to present. (See Truth.) 

Swift possessed the art of verisimilitude. 1814. Scott, Life of 

Swift, p. 457. 
Yerisimilitude or interest. Jeffrey, I., p. 211. 
Historical verisimilitnde. Dowden, Shak., etc., p. 262. 
Vernacular (I.) : Haz. to present. 

Spenser ... a deliberate estrangement from the vernacular, which 
is of itself a fault. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 93. 
Versatile : Jef. to present. 

Spontaneous versatility of genius. Swinburne, Mis., p. 32. 
Verve (XII.) : Dry. to present. 

Verve, as the Erench call it. Dryden, XIV., p. 206. 

Natural verve and imagination. Sa.intsbury, Hist. Er. Lit., 

p. 212. 
Much descriptive verve. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St. 
Vicious (XIV.) : Words, to present. 

Elaccid, crude, and vicious. Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., p. 218. 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, oil 

VIGOUR (XII.). 

The term ''vigour" has been frequently employed 
throughout all English criticism, yet there are no defi- 
nitely marked periods in its history. As As effective- 

, . p . . iiess of 

applying to the language oi a composition, language, 
vigour requires that it be simple and offer no difficul- 
ties to the ready comprehension of the thought, and 
that the sound, " tone colour," and nature of the words 
chosen be such as to be suggestive of movement and 
power. 

The French set up purity for the standard of their language ; a 
mascuUue vigour is that of ours. 1696. Dryden, XIV., 
p. 209. 

This vault of air, this congregated ball, 
Self-centred sun and stars, that rise and fall. 
This is vigorous. 1756, J. Warton, II., p. 327. 
Simphcity, ease, and vigour. Macaulay, IV., p. 80. 
Simple, vigorous, clear. Landor, III., p. 441. 

As applying to the thought of a composition, vigour 

represents a strength of conception and vividness of 

portrayal which is the result of moral sin- ^g power of 

cerity, of enthusiasm, of imagination, of pas- ^^^ 

sion, of some mental power other than mere intellect. 

The songs of Comus are vigorous and full of imagery. 17S1. 

S. Johnson, VIL, p. 124. 
The following quatrain is vigorous and animated : — 
The ghosts of traitors from the bridge descend, 
With bold fanatic spectres to rejoice, etc. 

Id., p. 321. 
Vigour and originahty. Coleridge, III., p. 5S9. 
Fertility and vigour. Id., IV., p. 190. 

There was no freshness and no variety, and in the absence of va- 
riety and freshness that of vigour was necessarily implied. 1S82. 
Saixtsbtjry, Hist. Er. Lit., p. 33. 



312 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Vigour reveals the tragedy of life. To one who exists languidly 
from day to day . . . the cross and passion of any human heart 
cannot be intelligible. . . . The heart must be all alive and sen- 
sitive before the imagination can conceive. Dowdex, Shak., 
pp. 25, 26. 
Vile (XIY.) : Yile in taste. Swtnburne, Mis., p. 92. 
Violent (XII.) : Pope to present. Pope, YIL, p. 401. 
Virile (XII.): Sted. to present. 

Virile barytone quality. Stedman, Vic. Poets, p. 111. 
Visionary (VIII.) : Ilaz. to present. Ilazlitt, El. Lit., p. 119. ' 
Vital (VII.) : Lovr. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 126. 
Vivacious (XII.) : S. John, to present. 
Vivid (III.) : Blair to present. 

Spenser's descriptions are exceedingly vivid . . . not picturesque 
. . . but composed of a wondrous series of images, as in our 
dreams. Coleridge, IV., p. 249. 
Vociferous : Stilted but not vociferous. Gosse, Erom Shak., etc., 

p. 86. 
Volatile (XVIII.) : Lan., Gosse. 

Volatile and sparkling. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 67. 
Volcanic : Volcanic style. Saintsbury, Hist. Er. Lit., p. 575. 
Voluble (XIX.) d ; Campion to present. 

Volubility and levity. S. Johnson, II., p. 447. 
Volume (XIII.) b : Howells to present. M. Arnold, Cel. Lit., p. 

292. 
Voluptuous (XIV.): Camp, to present. 

A voluptuous sense of the continuous. Hunt, Im. & Fancy, 
p. 37. 
VULGAR (V.) : Har. to present. 

I. A lack of refinement, delicacy, and purity in the 
use of language, and in the expression of thought and 
emotion. 

Gallicism or vulgarity. Hallam, III., p. 374. 

The vulgarity which is dead to form. Pater, Ap., p. 264. 

II. Obscenity ; an utter want of purity in the ex- 
pression of feeling and emotion. 



A HISTORY OF EXGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 313 

It is not fastidiousness, but manliuess and good feeling, which are 
outraged by such vulgarities. De Quincey, XI., p. oiO. 
Vulgarism (I.) : Gold, to present. Landor, lY., p. 62. 
Wandering (XVIII.) : Jef. to present. 

Interminable wanderings. Jeferey, II., p. 373. 
"Wanton: Webbe, Add. to present. 

Ovid in his most wanton books of love. Webbe, p. 4^. 
There is a wantonness of diablerie in this incident. Dowdex, 
Shak., etc., p. 186. 
Warmth (XVIII.) : Dry. to present. 

Warmth of circumstance. Bagehot, I., p. 120. 
Waspish (XIV.): Waspish sentiments. Gosse, Life of Congreve, 

p. 28. 
Wasteful: Jeffrey, II., p. 456. 
Weak (XII.) : Aschaui to present. 

The abuse of strength is harshness and heaviness ; the reverse of 
it is weakness. HuifT, Im. & Fancy, p. 34. 
Weighty (XL) : T. Wil. to present. 

Milton condenses weight into heaviness. Hunt, Im. & Lancy, 
p. 47. 
Weird: Poe to present. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 48. 
Well-considered (XIX.) d: Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 279. 
Well-languaged: Well-languaged Daniel. Whipple, El. Lit., p. 362. 
Well-sounding (X.) : Sidney, p. 47. 
Whimsical (XIX.) : Camp, to present. Gosse, Hist. Eug. Lit., III., 

p. 27. 
Wholesome (XIV.) : Lamb to present. Lowell IIL, p. 270. 
Width (XIII.) ^: Swim, Saints. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 161. 
Wild (XIX.) : Dry. to present. J. Wart on. L, p. 8. 
Wilful (XIX.) : Jef. to present. Rossetti, Lives, p. 361. 
Wire-drawn: Lengthy and wire-drawn. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., 

IIL, p. 250. 
Wise (XX.) ^: Sted. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 19. 
WIT (XXIIL). 

Previous to the present century four general shades 
of meaning may be distinguished in the use of the 
term " wit." Wit, as indicating the general ^ justness 
knowing power of the mind, did not come ^^ ^o^^^t. 



/ 



314 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

into use as a critical term. But wit, as representing 
that portion of the knowing power which results in 
propriety of composition, is a common use of the term 
until the latter portion of the eighteenth century. Wit 
represented a sort of instinctive judgment which was 
wholly controlled by the sense of propriety and culti- 
vated taste. 

Wit is a propriety of thouglits and words; or in other terms 
thoughts and words elegantly adapted to the subject. 1674. 
DfiYDEN, v., p. 124. 

True wit may be defined as a justness of thought and a faciUty of 
expression. 1704. Pope, VI., p. 16. 

In the better notion of wit considered as propriety, surely method 
is necessary for perspicuity and harmony of parts. 1707. Id., 
p. 34. 

Wit seems to be one of those undetermined sounds to which we 
affix scarce any precise idea. It is something more than judg- 
ment, genius, taste, talent, penetration, grace, delicacy, and yet 
it partakes somewhat of each. It may be properly defined in- 
genious reason. 1759. Goldsmith, II., p. 356. 

Wit, — that which is at once natural and new, that which not 
obvious, is upon its first production acknowledged to be just. 
1781. S. Johnson, VII., p. 15. 

It is apparent that wit has two meanings ; and that what is wanted, 
though called wit, is, truly, judgment. 1781. Id., VIII., 
p. 241. 

Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century 
the term ''wit" was often employed as a more or less 
As f nc and ^^^^^pl^^^ synonym for the imagination, as 
imagination, ^-^q imagination was then understood. Wit 
was the fundamental detection of resemblances, and 
the consequent power of making new combinations of 
thoughts and images. It was regarded as a mental 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 315 

process rather tKan as a literary product. It was al- 
ways native, often wayward, but when inspired with 
a purpose indicative of great power. 

The poet . . . lifted up with the vigor of his own inveiitiou cloth 
grow in effect into another nature . . . freely ranging within 
the zodiac of his own wit. 15 S3. Sidney, p. 7. 

Wit is the faculty of imagination in the writer. 1666. Duydex, 
IX., pp. 95, 96. 

Jonson is the more correct poet, but Shakespeare is the greater 
wit. 1668. Id., XV., p. 347. 

Wit lies most in the assemblage of ideas, and putting those to- 
gether with quickness and variety. (Quoted from Locke.) 
1710. Addison, II., p. 357. 

Wit and passion are entirely incompatible. When the affections 
are moved, there is no place for the imagination. 1742. Hume, 
I., p. 242. 

No man can say Shakespeare ever had a fit subject for his wit, and 
did not then raise himself high above the rest of poets. 1765. 
S. Johnson, V., p. 153. 

It is no more to be required that wit should always be blazing than 
that the sun should always stand at noon. . . . Milton, when he 
has expatiated in the sky, may be allowed sometimes to revisit 
earth. 1781. Id., YIl., p. 138. 

During the eighteenth century the imagination in 
Uterature was chiefly confined to the production of or- 
naments and conceits. Wit, likewise, came As an 

. ornamented 

to be regarded, at its worst, as something conceit, 
which falsified truth and violated simplicity for the 
sake of glitter and polish : at its best it was a play of 
fancy, which softened the rigid outlines of historical 
fact. 

Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty. . . . There is a 
certain majesty in simplicity, which is far above aU the quaint- 
ness of wit. 1706. Pope, YI., p. 51. 



316 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

Some to conceit alone their taste confine. 
And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at every line ; 
Pleased with a work where nothing 's just or fit, 
One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit. 

1711. Id., II., p. 50. 
The mind, in perusing a work overstocked with wit, is fatigued 
and disgusted with the constant endeavor to shine and surprise. 
1742. Hume, I., p. 241. 
Wit should be used with caution in works of dignity, as it is only 
at best an ornament. 1759. Goldsmith, II., p. 357. 

The fourth use of the term " wit " is the one which, 
with some slight variation, has continued throughout 
As the ^^^ present century. Wit was distinguished 

comical. from tlie judging power of the mind even in 
the beginning of English criticism. Wit furnished the 
materials for judgment; it was more instinctive; it 
was " sharpness of conceit " or of fancy, which always 
produced some combination of ideas or images more 
or less surprising to the judgment. When the surprise 
was very great, and the combination was seen at once 
to be merely the work of fancy, a sense of the comical 
was produced, which was called wit or humor. Hence 
wit, when denoting the comical, includes not only the 
primary activity of wit in revealing unexpected analo- 
gies and contrasts, but also the immediate reaction of 
the judgment against the momentary surprise and de- 
ception, occasioned by the apparent analogies and 
contrasts. 

His wit shall be new set on work ; his judgment for right choice 

truly tried. Ascham, III., p. 169. 
Wit and acuteness of fancy. 1668. Deyden, XV., p. 351. 
Wit in the stricter sense, that is, sharpness of conceit. . . . Jon- 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 317 

son was not free from the lowest and most grovelling kind of 

wit, which we call clenches. 1670. Id., IV., p. 237. 
If wit be pleasantry, Ovid has it to excess. 1693. Id., XII., 

p. 62. 
There is in Othello some burlesque, some humour and ramble of 

comical wit. Eymee, 2d Pt., p. 116. 
We have seen in our time the dech'ne and ruin of a false sort of 

wit. ... All humour had something of the quibble. Shaetes- 

BURY, I., p. 48. 

During the present century wit has been more closely 
defined both in its own nature and in its ethical rela- 
tions. Wit, as such, has uniformly been ao+i,o««.,x«, 

' ■ -^ As tne unsjTii- 

considered as a spontaneous, and chiefly, if of^^^incon- 
not wholly, intellectual process. When wit ^^^^^' 
as such is merely used in the interest of some ethical 
purpose, it becomes satire. When the unexpected con- 
trast or similarity surprises, and is reacted against, not 
so much by a fixed habit of judgment derived from the 
past, as by ideals which are projected into the future, 
then wit passes over into humor. 

Wit consists in presenting thoughts or images in an unusual con- 
nection with each other for the purpose of exciting pleasure bv 
the surprise. This connection may be real; and there is in fact 
a scientific wit. . . . But usually the connection is only apparent 
and transitory, and may be by thoughts (Butler), by words 
(Voltaire), by images (Shakespeare) ; the latter usually called 
fancy. 1810. Coleridge, 1Y., p. 75. 

In such periods as that of Charles II., wit succeeds to humour; 
we laugh from self-complaceocy and triumph, instead of pleasure. 
1821. Shelley, YII., p. 117. 

Whilst wit is a purely intellectual thing, into every act of the hu- 
morous mood there is an influx of the moral nature. 1S21. De 
QuiNCEY, XI., p. 270. 

Home Tooke . . . was a wit, and a formidable one : yet it may 



318 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

be questioned whether his wit was anything more than an excess 
of his logical faculty : it did not consist in the play of fancy, but 
in close and cutting combinations of the understanding. 1825. 
Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 80. 
Humour is wit appertaining to character, and indulges in breadth 
of drollery rather than in play and brilliancy of point. 1826. 
LA.NDOR, IV., pp. 270, 271. 
Voltaire's wit ranks essentially among the lowest species even of 
ridicule. It is at all times mere logical pleasantry; a gaiety of 
the head, not of the heart ; there is scarcely a twinkle of humour 
in the whole of his numberless sallies. 1829. Carlyle, II., 
p. 167. 
The living spirit of wit, its poetic and imaginative power . . . 
never bad a medium of expression comparable to the verse of 
Byron. 1869. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 306. 
The proper antithesis to humour is satire ; wit is common to both. 

1872. MiNTO, Man. of Eng. Lit., p. 23. 
Milton has flashes of wit, though not many; his indignation of 
itself sometimes makes him really sarcastic. But humorous he 
is never. Saintsbuuy, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 324. 
Witticism (XVII.) : Dry. to present. 

I have heard, says a critic, of anchovies dissolved in sauce ; but 
never of an angel in haUelujabs. A mighty witticism (if you will 
pardon a new word). Deyden, V., p. 122. 
"Wooden (VII.) : Conventional and wooden. Saintsbuuy, Es. in 

Eng. Lit., p. 347. 
Wordy (XIX.) d: Jef. to present. Jeffrey, IL, p. 404. 
Yonkerly : Your Latin farewell is a goodly, brave, youkerly piece of 

work. Habvey, Letters, p. 24. 
Youthfulness : Saintsbury, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 208. 
Zest (XV.) : Stedman, Vic. Poets, p. 111. 



APPENDIX. 



The Historical Grouping of the Terms. 

TT will be recognized by even the most casual student 
of the history of criticism that certain general features 
of literary composition have at some times been empha- 
sized more than at other times. Thus, speaking broadly, 
during the first century of English criticism the attention 
of the critics was occupied chiefly with the language and 
mechanical construction of literary composition, and also 
with a vague aesthetic sense of proportion and decorum ; 
during the next century, with the thought or sentiment 
of literature, and also with a conservative aesthetic sense 
of fitness or propriety; then, for nearly a century, with 
the imagery of a composition, and also with a vigorous 
aesthetic sensibility and passion ; and finally, for more 
than half a century, with the reality of a composition, 
its correspondence to actual life, and also with a refined 
aesthetic and artistic sensibility and feeling. 

These conceptions or principles of literature and criti- 
cism, and such as these, as they have risen into promi- 
nence, have exerted an organizing influence over the entire 
critical vocabulary. Any critical term or principle which 
occupies for any length of time the foreground of atten- 
tion compels other critical terms or principles to come 



320 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

into some sort of relation to it. By methods explained 
in tlie Introduction, by synonymous use, by contrast and 
by inclusion, critical terms thus historicallj^ organize them- 
selves. E. g.: — 

Superseding Shakespeare's wild beauties and Milton's ruggedness by 
establishing the reign of classic elegance, polish, aud correctiiess. 
(Quoted from "Extract Book.") T. Akxold, Man. of El. Lit., 
p. 306. 

The following lists are intended to gather up the results 
of this historical grouping of terms, — a grouping which 
was controlled more or less by the immediate feeling for 
some concrete portion of literature rather than by an ab- 
stract theory of how the terms ought to be grouped. The 
lists are the result of much painstaking comparison as to 
the actual use of critical terms. The organizing concep- 
tion for most of the groups is very evident in criticism. 
For historical reasons, however, many groups have been 
divided which could otherwise have been classified together. 
It has also been impossible to classify with any degree 
of accuracy many sporadic and figurative terms, whose 
critical significance has not as yet been definitely deter- 
mined by their actual application to literature. 

The first column of each list is composed of positive 
terms, those which represent some positive literary qual- 
ity or characteristic ; the second and third columns are 
composed of negative terms, those which deny the pres- 
ence of the positive literary quality or characteristic. 
Some positive terms may have two negatives, one of 
"deficiency'^ and one of "excess." The terms denoting 
a deficiency of some literary quality are placed in the 
second column, those denoting an excess in the third 
column. The negative terms are usually to be consid- 



APPENDIX 



321 



ered, not so much as the direct opposite to any one pos- 
itive term, as to the general conception represented by 
all the positive terms. 



I. PURITY. 


CORRECTNESS. 


GRAMMATICAL 


Positive. 


Deficient. 


Excess. 


Chaste. 


Archaic. 


Purism. 


Clean. 


Barbarism. 




Correct. 


Colloquial. 




English. 


Corrupt. 




Grammatical. 


Gallic. 




Idiomatic. 


Germanisms. 




Marble-pure. 


Hebraism. 




Mot-propre. 


Ink-horn. 




Pure. 


Latinism. 




Vernacular. 


Licentious. 

Obsolete. 

Provincial. 

Slangy. 

Solecism. 

Yulc^arism. 





Koger Ascham's ^^Scholemaster/^ written in 1557, was 
an innovation in more ways than one. It marks the be- 
ginning in England of pedagogical discussion, of a schol- 
arly prose literature, and of criticism. The criticism which 
it contains is incidental to the pedagogical discussion of 
certain Latin authors, who are recommended for study. 
The prose style in which it is written gives constant evi- 
dence of the Latin influence ; the separate words only are 
English ; the Latin order and idiom are paramount. In 
fact, more than half a century after the publication of 
Ascham's ^^Scholemaster/' Bacon, utterly distrusting the 
native tongue as a means of scholarly expression, wrote 
his Novum Organum in Latin. This overpowering influ- 

21 



822 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

ence of Latin scholarship in composition gradually gave 
way to the English idiom. But the process was a slow 
one. The native idiom was crude and unrefined, and the 
improvement of the language of literary composition was 
perhaps the most fundamental problem with which Eng- 
lish criticism had to deal during the first century of its 
development. 



II. ORDER. PROPORTION. REGULARITY. 



Positive. 



Deficient. 



Excess. 



Antithetical. 


Amorphous. 


Intricate. 


Mannered. 


Balanced. 


Arabesque. 


Invertebrate. 


Monotony. 


Consecutive. 


Blundering. 


Involved. 


Sameness. 


Equal. 


Changeful. 


Jagged. 


Sing-song. 


Even. 


Chaotic. 


Motley. 


Uniformity. 


Eorm. 


Clumsy. 


Perplexed. 




Methodic. 


Complicated. 


Rough. 




Order. 


Confused. 


Rough-hewn. 




Periodic. 


Contorted. 


Roundabout. 




Poised. 


Convolution. 


Scabrous. 




Proportion. 


Crabbed. 


Shapeless. 




Regular. 


Crooked. 


Suiuous. 




Symmetry. 


Cumbrous. 


Spasmodic. 




Systematic. 


Distorted. 


Straggling. 






Eccentric. 


Tortuous. 






Erratic. 


Tortured. 






Fantastic. 


Turbid. 






Eitful. 


Ungainly. 






Inchoate. 


Unhewn. 






Insouciance. 







This list of terms refers to the methodic arrangement 
of the parts of a literary production, of the sounds, 
syllables, words, phrases, sentences, and occasionally 
of the plot or fable, — this methodic arrangement to 



APPENDIX 



323 



take place perhaps to a certain extent in accordance 
with the native sense of harmony in the mind, but more 
usually in accordance with certain given rules of compo- 
sition. Incidentally, the terms may indicate a sufficient 
logical arrangement of the argument or thought to avoid 
confusion or contradiction. Method in composition grew 
very largely out of the attempt to purify the language, 
and to elevate it by analogy with Greek and Eoman lit- 
erature ; and hence most of the terms of the present list 
were in great favor during the first two centuries of 
English criticism. ^ ■ 

III. PERSPICUITY. CLEARNESS. SIMPLICITY. 



Positv 



Deficient. 



Clarity. 


Pellucid. 


Abstruse. 


Inexplicable. 


Clear. 


Perspicacity. 


Ambiguous. 


Misty. 


Clear-cut. 


Perspicuous. 


Cloudy. 


Mystical. 


Definable. 


Photographic. 


Complex. 


Obscure. 


Definite. 


Pictorial. 


Covert. 


Opaque. 


Distinct. 


Plain. 


Dark. 


Puzzling. 


Exact. 


Precision. 


Difficult. 


Turbid. 


Explicit. 


Simple. 


Dim. 


Uncertain. 


Graphic. 


Tangible. 


Hard. 


Vague. 


Intelligible. 


Translucent. 


Indefinable. 




Lucid. 


Transparent. 






Luminous. 


Yivid. 






Obvious. 









The terms of this list represent the general require- 
ment that the language of a composition shall be so 
arranged that the reader may most readily and vividly 
comprehend the thought expressed. The terms designate 
a general result, which is produced by a complex multi- 
plicity of means, and the history of the different terms 
is to be traced by indicating the general change which 



324 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 



has taken place in the means by which this general re- 
sult is thought to be best brought about. For this ready 
comprehension of the thought, the early English critics 
laid chief stress upon the choice of words and the gram- 
matical construction of sentences. From about the middle 
of the seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth 
century, the logical arrangement of the sentences was con- 
sidered as the chief means for attaining this ready com- 
prehension of the thought. During the latter half of the 
eighteenth and the early portion of the present century, 
the chief emphasis was laid upon the distinctness and viv- 
idness of the mental imager}^ employed. But during the 
greater portion of the present century it has been very 
frequently recognized that the thought can be readily 
comprehended only in so far as it is truthful to the facts 
represented, as it corresponds to reality. Most of the 
terms of the list given above have been very perceptibly 
affected by this general change of view as to the method 
by which the thought could be most efficiently expressed 
in language. 

IV. PROPRIETY. 



Positive. 


Deficient. 
Anachronism. 


Excess, 


Adaptation. 


Fitness. 


Ceremonious. 


Appropriate. 


Happy. 


Ancient. 


Conventional. 


Apt. 


Keeping (in). 


Antiquated. 


Fastidious. 


Becoming. 


Meetely. 


Barbarous. 


Formality. 


Choice. 


Modern. 


Eifete. 


Prudery. 


Chosen. 


Proper. 


Par-fetched. 


Prim. 


Concinnity. 


Propriety. 


Ill-placed. 


Mannerism. 


Congruous. 


Pertinent. 


Incongruous. 


Over-castigated. 


Consentaneity. 


Seasonable. 


License. 


Over-mannered, 


Decent. 


Seemly. 


Pseudo -antique. 




Decorum. 


Suitable. 


Unseemly. 




Fasliionablo. 


Well-chosen. 






Felicity. 









APPENDIX. 



825 



The general conception of this list of terms is the 
harmonious adaptation of the various characteristics of a 
composition to one another, — of the subject chosen, 
the language employed, the figures of speech, the senti- 
ments, the characters, — especially their moral deportment, 
— all these to be in conformity with the nature of the 
audience addressed, and with the personal character of the 
author himself. In tracing the history of the different 
terms of the list, the chief interest arises from the change 
which has taken place in the means by which the fitness 
or adaptation of the different parts of a composition is 
determined; a secondary interest arises from the varia- 
tion as regards the part of the composition to which the 
term especially refers. The terms were in greatest use 
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
V. ORNAMENT. ELEGANCE. COLOR. 



Positive. 


Deficient. 
Bare. 


Excess. 


(a.) Adorned. 


Jaunty. 


Aniline. 


Artifice. 


Lambent. 


Base. 


Arabesque. 


Bright. 


Many-colored. 


Blunt. 


Dazzling. 


Brilliant. 


Monumental. 


Coarse. 


Elaborate. 


Brocaded. 


Neat. 


Crude. 


Embroidery. 


Chiselled. 


Nicety. 


Dead-colored. 


Eiuery. 


Color. 


Nobby. 


Gross. 


Einical. 


Costly. 


Ornament. 


Homely. 


Elamboyant. 


Courteous. 


Ornate. 


Horse-play. 


Elashy. 


Courtly. 


Point 


Mean. 


Eloribund. 


Decorative. 


Polished. 


Pale. 


Elorid. 


Elegance. 


Polite. 


Pallid. 


Elowery. 


Embellished. 


Quality. 


Bude. 


Erippery. 


Eigured. 


Befinement. 


Bugged. 


Gaudy. 


Einisli. 


Shining. 


Bustic. 


Glaring. 


Gentleman-like 


Splendor. 


Sombre. 


Gorgeous. 


Gentlemanly. 


Urbanity. 


Vulgar. 


High-colored. 


Glitter. 


Yarnished. 




Meretricious. 


Glossy. 






Over-jewelled. 



326 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 



Positive. 



(b.) Skill, etc. 




Ability. 


Execution. 


Accomplished. 


Expert. 


Adroit. 


Skill. 


Alacrity. 


Smart. 


Artful. 


Subtle. 


Capacity. 


Tact. 


Clever. 


Talent. 


Cunning. 


Technique. 


Dextrous. 





Deficient. Excess. 

Over-shining. 
Abortive. Painted. 

Parade. 
Plebeian. 
Pretty. 
Showy. 
Sumptuous. 
Tawdry. 
Tinsel. 



The terms of this list indicate in general such a selection 
of facts and such a method of expressing them as shall give 
evidence of brilliant fancy and cultured feeling. The facts 
selected must be capable of entering, as it were, into good 
society ; they must not offend by their crudeness ; they must 
conform to good usage. The language must be slightly 
heightened above what is necessary for a plain statement of 
the facts, but still it must not be heightened so much as to 
become ^^ extravagant/^ "florid/' or "rhetorical.'^ The posi- 
tive and active use of these terms in English criticism is 
confined chiefly to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

VI. ANCIENT TECHNICAL TERMS. 

Character. Ethos. 

Elocution. Manners. 

Eloquence. Sentiment. 

Many of the technical terms of the ancient critical vo- 
cabulary became active naturalized expressions in Eng- 
lish criticism. A few terms^ however, occurring usually 
in dramatic criticism, failed to assimilate, so to speak, 
with the vocabulary of English criticism. They have 
scarcely ever been employed as active critical terms, nor 
do they exercise much schematizing influence upon other 
terms. Still they have helped to shape the general lines 



APPENDIX, 



327 



of discussion in English criticism^ even to the present 
time^ and a brief account of the changes of meaning which 
have taken place in the use of these words is imperative. 



VII. 


NATURE. 


NATURAL. SINC 


;ere. 


Positive. 


Deficient. 


Artless. 


Naivete. 


Affected. 


Ealsetto. 


Effortless. 


Native. 


Artificial. 


Ear-sought. 


Genuine. 


Natural. 


Bastard. 


Eorced. 


Home-bred. 


Nature. 


Bookish. 


Labored. 


Home-spun. 


Organic. 


Cant. 


Literary. 


Honest. 


Sincere. ' 


Conceited. 


Mechanical. 


Ingenuous. 


Spontaneous. 


Conscious. 


Morbid. 


Instinctive. 


Unconscious. 


Dilettantesque. 


Pedantic. 


Living, 


Yital. 


Dissembled. 


Stilted. 


Naive. 




Excrementitious. 


Studied. 






Exotic. 


Wooden. " 






Eactitious. 





Whatever is not consciously elaborated is included in 
a more or less vague manner by the general conception 
of this list of terms. They represent the ^^ twilight of 
the mind/^ the ^^ fringe ^^ of conscious life, that which seems 
to be given to man, to come unsought from without and 
from within. Hence these terms indicate, on the one hand, 
the most simple and primary native powders of the mind 
brought into play in the production of literature ; on the 
other hand, they denote accuracy to the most simple and 
primary apprehension of external facts. 

VIIL PROBABILITY. TRUTH. REALITY. 



Positive. 



Deficient. 



(a.) Accurate. 


Historic. 


Caricature. 


Ealse. 


Actual. 


Inevitable. 


Deceit. 


Eictitious. 


Authentic. 


Life-like. 


Delusive. 


Eigurative. 


Exact. 


Plausible. 


Discutable. 


Heightened. 


Eaithfal. 


Possibility. 


Exaggerated. 


Histrionic. 


Eidelity. 


Probability. 


Excessive. 


Hyperbolical. 



328 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 



Positive. 



Deficient. 



Heal. Truth-like. Hypocrisy. Questionable. 

Realism. Undeniable. Incredible. Spurious. 

Reality. Veracity. Mendacious. Visionary. 

Sure. Verisimilitude. Metaphorical. 

Truth. Paradoxical, 

(b.) Circumstantial. Abstract. 

Concrete. Generality. 

Detailed. 

Minute. 

Particular. 
The terms of this list denote whatever in actual life can 
be accepted as fact, whatever can be most depended upon, 
and is most permanent in the interests of any individual 
or of any number of individuals. ^^Fact^^ in criticism 
consists in whatever is considered as most essential for 
literary representation. Before the present century, when 
the dominant type of literature was the epic, fact was 
thought to be attained by accuracy to historical events. 
In the present century, when poetry is chiefly lyrical, 
fact is supposed to be represented by the thoughts and 
feelings with which lyrical poetry deals. 



IX. VARIETY. NOVELTY. 


GOTHIC. ] 


ROMANTIC. 


Positive. 




Deficient. 
Common. 


Excess. 


Bizarre. 


Helief. 


Monstrous, 


Curious. 


Komantic. 


Commonplace. 




Distinction. 


Singular. 


Hackneyed. 




Extraordinary. 


Startling. 


Magazinish. 




Fresh. 


Strange. 


Old-fashioned. 




Gothic. 


Striking. 


Ordinary. 




Grotesque. 


Sudden. 


Stale. 




New. 


Unexpected. 


Trite. 




Novelty. 


Unique. 






Odd. 


Variety. 






Quaint. 


Weird. 






Rare. 


Wonderful. 







APPENDIX, 



329 



The early critics found it necessary to insist upon reg- 
ularity in composition in order to counteract the native 
tendency of English writers toward variety and novelty. 
This sense of variety, of constant change, of the develop- 
ing movement in literature, was strong in the beginning 
of English criticism, and it has grown stronger and stronger 
until the present time. It is this conception of constant 
change and development, viewed as to its most general 
manifestation both in the mind and in the composition, 
that is represented by the present list of terms. 

X. HARMONY. RHYTHMICAL. MUSICAL. 



Positive. 




Deficient, 


Alliteration. 


Metrical. 


Cacophonous, 


Ambling. 


Modulation. 


Clang. 


Antiphonal. 


Monochordic. 


Clangour. 


Assonant. 


Musical. 


Clashing. 


Barytone. 


Numbers. 


Discord. 


Cadence. 


Numerous. 


Dissonance. 


Canorous. 


Organ-like. 


Harsh. 


Clarion- versed. 


Resonance. 


Hurtling. 


Dactylic. 


Ehythmical. 


Jarring. 


Euphonious. 


Rolling. 


Jingle. 


Elute-Hke. 


Smooth. 


Jumping. 


Harmony. 


Soft. 


Rattling. 


Hymnal. 


Sonorous. 


Rumbling. 


Intonation. 


Sounding. 


Shrill. 


Lilting. 


Spondaic. 


Tuneless. 


Limpid. 


Sweet. 


Turgid. 


Liquid. 


Swelling. 


Wheezing. 


Measured. 


Symphonical. 




Mellifluous. 


Trumpet-tone. 




Melody. 


Tuneful. 




Melting. 


Well-sounding. 





The terms of this list represent the simple principles 
of music which are made use of in the composition of 



830 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 



literature, — the sense of rhythm and of harmony in sound. 
Previous to the present century the terms were referred 
for explanation chiefly to the composition itself; during 
the present century, to the mind of the author or reader. 

XII. VIGOUR. ENERGY. FORCE. 



Positive, 


Deficient, 


Excess. 


Aggressive. 


Abortive. 


Audacity. 


Ambitious. 


Anti -climax. 


Cut-and-thrust. 


Animated. 


Childisli. 


EbuUient. 


Bold. 


Effeminate. 


Ferocious. 


Cogent. 


Effortless. 


Fierce. 


Daring. 


Emasculate. 


Fiery. 


Emphatic. 


Exhausted. 


Furious. 


Energy. 


Eeeble. 


Impetuous. 


Eearless. 


Feminine. 


Impulsive. 


Eire. 


Elaccid. 


Intense. 


Eorce. 


Flat. 


Intrepidity. 


EuU-blooded. 


Inanity. 


Rash. 


Eull-bodied. 


Indolence. 


Savage. 


Hearty. 


Infantile. 


Stormy. 


Life. 


Insipid. 


Strained. 


Lively. 


Jejune. 


Terrible. 


Lusty. 


Languid. 


Terrific. 


Masculine. 


Lax. 


Tumultuous. 


Momentum. 


Meagre. 


Vehement. 


Muscular. 


Mincing. 


Violent. 


Nervous. 


Nerveless. 




Persistent. 


Operoseness. 




Positive. 


Otiose. 




Potent. 


Paucity. 




Power. 


Penury. 




Quick. 


Platitude. 




Racy. 


Poor. 




Resilient. 


Poverty. 




Robust. 


Puerile. 







APPENDIX. 


Positive* 


Deficient, 


Sedulous. 


Senile. 


Self-assertive. 


Slack. 


Sinevt^y. 


Stagnant. 


Speed. 


Tame. 


Spirit. 


Torpid. 


Stirring. 


Vapid . 


Strength. 


Weak. 


Strenuous. 


Weary. 


Stress. 




Verve. 




Vigour 




Virile. 




Vivacious. 





331 



The terms of this list were very prominent in English 
criticism from about the middle of the eighteenth century 
until within the early portion of the present century. 
Although the words do not have much history, which 
is peculiar to them as critical terms, their constant and 
frequent mention would seem to indicate that they must 
represent some fundamental artistic impulse or literary 
instinct of the mind. 



XL MAJESTY. DIGNITY. SUBLIMITY. 



Positive. 



(a.) August. 


Heroic. 


Cyclopean. 
Dense. 


High. 
Immense. 


Dignity. 
Elevation. 
Exalted. 
Eirm. 


Imperial. 
Imposing. 
Impressive. 
Large. 


Gigantic. 
Grand. 


Lofty. 
Magnificent. 


Grandeur. 


Majestic. 



Deficient. 

Eabyish. 

Bathos. 

Childish. 

Drivelling. 

Ephemeral. 

Evanescent. 

Elippant. 

Erivolous. 

Eugitive. 

Little. 



332 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 



Positive. 


Deficient, 


Massive. 


Staid. 


Niaiserie. 


Might. 


Stately. 


Paltry. 


Noble. 


Steady. 


Petty. 


Oceanic. 


Stolid! 


Quibbling. 


Ponderous. 


Sublime. 


Rubbishy. 


Spacious. 


Vast. 


Transient. 


Stable. 


Weighty. 


Transitory. 


(b.) Abundance. 


Copy. 


Triiing. 


Affluent. 


Exuberance. 


Trivial. 


Ample. 


Fulness. 




Amplitude. 


Opulent. 




Copious. 


Rich. 





There are few English critics who do not make their 
sense of power one of the chief means by which to test 
the merits of literary work. The subject must be so viv- 
idly conceived of by the author, and portrayed so effec- 
tively, that it shall seem to the reader to be a moving 
portion of real life. Thus, as to the drama, English taste 
required, not declamation concerning action, but action 
itself; in regard to descriptive poetry, it delights not in 
the immediate object so much as in the distant prospect, 
suggestive always of movement ; and in poetry dealing 
with the states of the mind, it demands that the shades 
of character portrayed, however subtle they may be, shall 
be immediately related to the central interests of human 
life and human destiny. Now, energy may be repre- 
sented as active at the time, or it may be represented, so 
to speak, as resisting itself, as self-contained, as display- 
ing a vast capability of power without any immediate 
exercise of that power. These divisions of energy, which 
in philosophy and physics are known as dynamic and 
latent energy, are perhaps enough applicable to criticism 



APPENDIX. 

to justify the classification of the terms denoting energy 
into two separate groups. 





XIII. 


UNITY. 




Positive, 




Deficient. 


Coherence. 


Linked. 


Abrupt. 


Diverse. 


Compact, 


Motive. 


Broken. 


Eclectic. 


Complete. 


Solid. 


Composite. 


Excursive. 


Connected. 


Sustained. 


Digressive. 


Indigested. 


Consistency. 


Tone. 


Disconnected. 


Loose-jointed 


Continuity. 


Unicity. 


Discursive. 


Loose-hung. 


Fused. 


Unity. 


Disjointed. 


Sketchy. 


Homogeneous. 








Body. 


Profound. 


Limited. 




Breadth. 


Range. 


Narrow. 




Compass. 


Reach. 


Restricted, 




Comprehensive. 


Scope. 






Depth. 


Sweeping. 






Expansive. 


Thorough. 






Extensive. 


Yolume. 






Grasp. 


Width. 







The terms of this list are closely related on the one 
hand to the general conception of regularity, and on the 
other hand to those mental activities by means of which 
the unity of a literary production is apprehended and held 
in mind during the process of composition. In so far as 
the terms refer to regularity, they represent literary prin- 
ciples or features which are capable of exact definition, 
of being reduced to method and rule. In so far as the 
terms refer to mental activities, they are not capable of 
such exact definition. The general change of meaning in 
the terms has been from the standpoint of regularity to 
that of the psychical activities. 



M A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL 


TERMS. 




XIV. 


MORAL. 




Positive. 




Deficient 


Amenity, 


Grave. 


Acerbity. 


Immoral. 


Amiable. 


Grim. 


Acrid. 


Indignant. 


Candor. 


Healthful. 


Acrimony. 


Insolence. 


Catholic. 


Human. 


Asservity. 


Levity. 


Cheerful. 


Innocence. 


Bawdry. 


Low. 


Congenial. 


Joyous. 


Biting. 


Obscene. 


Conscientious. 


Liberal. 


Bitter. 


Querulous. 


Cordial. 


Manly. 


Carping. 


Rancid. 


Devout. 


Melancholy. 


Caustic. 


Rancour, 


Disinterested. 


Moral. 


Corrupt. 


Ribald. 


Earnest. 


Pensive. 


Cynical. 


Sensual. 


Ethical. 


Plaintive. 


Debased. 


Servile. 


Erank. 


Sad. 


Distrustful. 


Sickly. 


Gay. 


Serious. 


Egotistic. 


Scurrilous. 


Generous. 


Solemn. 


Ear-grasping. 


Vain. 


Genial. 


Sombre. 


Eawning. 


Vicious. 


Gloomy. 


Sunny. 


Filthy. 


Yile. 


Good-tempered. 


Timid. 


^ Eoul. 


Yoluptuous. 


Gracious. 


Tolerant. 


Fulsome 


Waspish. 


Grateful. 


Wholesome. 


Isrnoble 





There are very few critical terms which do not possess 
more or less ethical significance. The present list is com- 
posed of those terms the ethical significance of which is 
most immediate and direct. Literature, it is universally 
agreed, must not be immoral ; but as to the manner in 
which it is to conduce to morality, there is no such uni- 
versal agreement. Hence the unity of the present list is 
to be found in the negative rather than in the positive 
terms. It was near the beginning of the present century 
that morality and literature were first fundamentally iden- 
tified with each other. This fact gives the historical set- 
ting for this list of terms. 



APPENDIX. 



335 



XV. PASSION. IMPASSIONED. FEELING. 



Positive. 


Deficient, 


Excess. 


Affectionate. 


Arctic. 


Adolescent. 


Amorous. 


Austere. 


Eeverisli. 


Ardent. 


Cold. 


Elame. 


Ardor. 


Cold-blooded. 


Erantic. 


Ecstasy. 


Dry. 


Erenzy. 


Emotion. 


Erigid. 


Hectic. 


Enthusiastic. 


Indifferent. 


Hysterical. 


Erotic. 


Marble-cold. 


Lachrymose. 


Peeling. 


Neutral. 


Lascivious. 


Eervent. 


Scholastic. 


Mawkish. 


Eervors. 




Namby-pamby 


Gusto. 




Pothery. 


Heat. 




Prurient. 


Impassioned. 




Rabid. 


Inspired. 




Raving. 


Passion. 




Sensational. 


Hapture. 




Sensuous. 


Sensibility. 




Sentimental. 


Sympathy. 






Warmth. 






Zest. 







The terms of this list are closely related to those de- 
noting strength, morality, and aesthetic feeling. ^Esthetic 
ideals continually become moral purposes, and from 
strength and persistency of impulse to realize these ideals 
and purposes there results passion or emotion, as it has 
usually been employed in criticism. In so far as the 
impulse receives emphasis, emotion or passion tends to 
become mere appetite. In so far as the ideal is empha- 
sized, emotion becomes poetical, refined, artistic. 



836 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 



XVI. PICTURESQUE. SUGGESTION. 



Positive 


• 


Deficient, 


Allusive. 


Pithey. 


Arid. 


Conspicuous. 


Plentiful. 


Bald. 


Expressive. 


Pregnant. 


Barren. 


Fecundity. 


Prolific. 


Naked. 


Eertile. 


Prophetic. 


Sterile. 


Eruitful. 


Salient. 




Interpretative. 


Significant. 




Latent. 


Suggestive. 




Memorable. 


Symbolical. 




Picturesque. 







The terms of this list represent in general the use of 
the association of ideas in the mind as the chief means 
of producing literary effects. The mind of the reader is 
filled more with a sense of what he does not directly see 
than of what he does. The author feels the depth and 
sincerity of human life, and with one masterly touch he 
strikes a chord which echoes far and wide within the 
realm of unexpressed memories, ideals, and longings. The 
immediate image becomes in a sense a symbol for the re- 
mote, the far-off, the mysterious. This reaching out of 
human thought toward the unlimited, the infinite, has 
been marked during the whole of the present century, — 
especially was it prominent during the early portion of 
the century. 



XVII. 

Positive. 



PATHOS. 



Amusing. 
Archness. 
Bon-mot. 



Buffoonery. 
Burlesque. 
Clench. 



HUMOR. 

Deficient. 

Droll. 
Dry. 

Dry-stick. 





APPENDIX. 


Positive. 


Comical. 


Repartee. 


Cunning. 


Ridiculous. 


Cynical. 


Salt. 


Diverting. 


Sarcastic. 


Farcical. 


Satire. 


Humor. 


Sportive. 


Incongruous. 


Witticism. 


Irony. 




Ludicrous. 


Affecting. 


Mirth. 


Moving. 


Pleasantry. 


Pathetic. 


Poignant. 


Touching. 


Raillery. 


Tragic. 



337 



The contrast between actual conditions and ideal possi- 
bilities gives rise to a feeling or " passion/^ which, during 
the present century, has been called pathos and humor, 
— pathos being relatively the more passive, humor the 
more active phase of the same sympathetic activity of the 
mind. Both terms, however, have an extended history, 
and were formerly used with meanings and relations quite 
other than those which they now possess. The terms of 
this list have their apparent unity in the simple feeling 
of the incongruous; they have their real unity in the 
idealizing tendencies, by means of which this feeling of 
the incongruous is rendered possible. 

XVIII. EASY. RAPID. DIRECT. 



Positive. 



Action. 

Airy. 

Blithe. 



Brisk. 

Buoyant. 

Crisp. 



Deficient. 



Circuitous. 

Club-footed. 

Constrained. 



Constricted. 

Crabbed. 

Creeping. 



22 



838 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 



Positive. 



Deficient. 



Curraut. 


Plastic. 


Desultory. 


Rambling. 


Direct. 


Plavfiix. 


Dragging. 


Shuffling. 


Ductile. 


Pliant. 


Embarrassed. 


SJip-shod. 


Ease. 


Progression. 


Elagging. 


Slow. 


Elastic. 


Racy. 


Eloandering. 


Sprawling. 


Eacility. 


Rapid. 


Halting, 


Stiff. 


Elexible. 


Skipping. 


Heavy. 


Stumbling. 


Elow. 


Slipper. 


Hobbling. 


Tardy. 


Eluent. 


Sportive. 


Lame. 


Trailing. 


Eluid. 


Sprightly. 


Limping. 


Unwieldy. 


Eree. 


Straight-forward. 


Lumbering. 


Wandering. 


Leaping. 


Supple. 


Pedestrian. 




Light. 


Surging. 






Lithe. 


Swift. 






Motion. 


Trippingly. 






Movement. 


Vaulting. 






Nimble. 


Volatile. 






Pert. 









The requirement of perspicuity and clearness in style, 
when joined with that of strength, or at least of move- 
mentj forms the general conception for the list of terms 
given above. Clearness as such, the mere desire of ren- 
dering the thought of a composition intelligible to others, 
may lead to loquacity and wordiness. The general con- 
ception of the present list of terms, however, assumes 
that the reader is, as it were, within the literary work 
itself; not waiting to be impressed by it, but actively 
participating in its movement, and demanding only that 
this movement shall not be unnecessarily retarded, whether 
from combinations of sound, from logical arrangement, 
from the flow of mental imagery, or from plot development. 



APPENDIX. 



839 



XIX. CLASSICAL. TEMPERANCR 



Positive. 



Deficient. 



Calm. 


Abstinence. 


Adventurous. 


Effusive. 


Equable. 


Adequate. 


Awkward. 


Elliptical. 


Equauimity. 


Careful. 


Blundering. 


Extravagant. 


Gentle. 


Cautious. 


Capricious. 


Eustiau. 


Mild. 


Chaste. 


Careless. 


Garrulity. 


Placid. 


Chastised. 


Clownish. 


Grandiloquent. 


Quiet. 


Classical. 


Plighty. 


Grandiose. 


Repose. 


Composed. 


Hasty. 


Grandity. 


Sedate. 


Guarded. 


Hurried. 


Gush. 


Serene. 


Moderation. 


Inconstant. 


Gusty. 


Tranquil. 


Modest. 


Loud. 


High-flown. 




Reserved, 


Negligent. 


Liflated. 




Restrained. 


Restless. 


Long-winded. 




Scrupulous. 


Slovenly. 


Loquacity. 




Sculpturesque. 


Whimsical. 


Luxuriant. 




Self-control. 


Wild. 


Magniloquence 




Severe. 


Wilful. 


Noisy. 




Sober. 




Oriental. 




Statuesque. 




Ostentatious. 




Subdued. 




Pomp. 




Temperate. 




Pretentious. 




Well-considered. 




Profuse. 

Prolix. 

Rant. 




Brevity. 


Amplified. 


Redundant. 




Compression. 


Asiatic. 


Rhetorical. 




Concentrated. 


Bluster. 


Supei'fluous. 




Concise. 


Boisterous. 


Tautological. 




Condensed. 


Bombast. 


Tropical. 




Laconic. 


Brazen. 


Tumid. 




Terse. 


Declamatory. 


Yerbiage. 






DifPuse. 


Verbose. 






Dilatation. 


Voluble. 






Dilation. 


Wordy. 






Dilution. 





340 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 

The general conception of temperance or moderation in 
composition which this group of terms represents is in- 
timately related to purity, regularity, clearness, and pro- 
priety. The most casual glance at the association of terms 
in the quotations given under the different terms of this 
list will make this fact evident. On the other hand, the 
general conception of temperance is connected in a scarcely 
less intimate manner with energy, power, and strength of 
style in a composition. The requirement is that this 
power m some manner be restrained. If the restraint is 
externally imposed, as it were, either immediately or me- 
diately from custom and precedent, then temperance tends 
toward the proprieties. If the restraint is in a sense self- 
imposed, then temperance becomes dignity and grandeur. 



XX. JUDICIOUS. INTELLECTUAL. 

Positive, Deficient. 



Critical. 


Reasonable. 


Eolly. 


Good-sense. 


Sense. 


Foolish. 


Instructive. 


Sensible. 


Nonsense. 


Judicious, 


Understanding. 


Preposterous. 


Just. 


Wise. 


Silly. 


Rational. 




Simpleness. 
Superficial. 


Academic. 


Logical. 


UnmeaniDg. 


Analytic. 


Meditative. 




Brooding. 


Pliilosopliical. 


Absurd. 


Contemplative. 


Reflective. 




Erudite. 


Studious. 




Intellectual. 


Thoughtful. 




Learned. 







APPENDIX. 341 

Positive. Deficient. 



Acumen. Pungent. Dull. 

Acute. Sagacity. Obtuse. 

Cutting. Sanity. Stupid. 

Discriminative. Sharp. 

Edge. Shrewd. 

Incisive. Succinct. 

Keeuo Subtle. 

Penetrative. Trenchant. 

Piercing. 

The use of iutellectual and more or less logical terms 
m criticism was especially pronounced during the greater 
portion o^" the eighteenth century and during the latter por- 
tion of the present century. There is an important dif- 
ference, however, in the nature of the intellectual terms 
employed during these two periods. In the eighteenth 
century the intellectual activities represented in criti- 
cism were chiefly deliberative, — such terms as -^judi- 
cious" and ^^understanding '^ being in great favor. During 
the present century the intellectual terms which have 
been most employed in criticism represent native and 
unelaborated activities or capacities of the mind, — terms 
which either characterize the general mental tempera- 
ment of the author as reflected in his work, or represent 
his native intellectual acuteness and penetration. 

XXI. CLASSIFYING TERMS. 

Allegorical. Idylhc. 

Bucolic. Invective. 

Choral. Lyrical. 

Comedy. Narrative. 

Didactic. Panegyrical. 

Dramatic. Pastoral. 

Elegiac. Picaresque. 

Epic. Rhapsodical. 

Earce. Romance. 



842 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

This list is composed of those terms which originally 
denoted certain forms or divisions of literature without 
any reference whatever to the critical signij&cance of 
the different literary forms or divisions thus designated. 
But for reasons given in the Introduction it was impos- 
sible for these terms to preserve their critical neutrality. 
They have been used chiefly during the present century, 
and the numerous theoretical discussions relative to the 
^- species'^ or divisions of literature have given these terms 
far more critical significance than they formerly possessed. 

XXII. iESTHETIC TERMS. 



I. — Mere Approval. 



Positive. 



Deficient, 



Absolute. 


Immortal. 


Defective. 


Admirable. 


Impeccable. 


Futile. 


Adorable. 


Inavertible. 




Brave. 


Incomparable. 




Choice. 


Inimitable. 




Commendable. 


Marvelous. 




Competence. 


Masterly. 




Conclusive. 


Meritorious. 




Consummate. 


Miraculous. 




Creditable. 


Model. 




Distinguished. 


Peerless. 




Effective. 


Perfect. 




Eminent. 


Readable. 




Excellent. 


Sovereign. 




Exhaustive. 


Speckless. 




Faultless. 


Superb. 




Final. 


Supreme. 




Flawless. 


Typical. 




Great. 


Unsurpassed. 





APPENDIX. 



343 



II. — Esthetic Terms Peoper. 



Positive. 



Negatu 



Aerial. 


Fragrant. 


Balderdash. 


Esthetic. 


Graceful. 


Brutish. 


Affinity. 


Handsome, 


Cloying. 


Agreeable. 


Heavenly. 


Detestable. 


Airy. 


Ineffable. 


Doggerel. 


Art. 


Interesting. 


Dreary. 


Artistic. 


Irresistible. 


Empty. 


Attractive. 


Lovely. 


Gibberish. 


Beauty. 


Luscious. 


Gruesome. 


Charm. 


Magical. 


Hideous. 


Cogency. 


Magnetic. 


Horrible. 


Comely. 


Palpable. 


Horrid. 


Convincing. 


Persuasive. 


Impalpable. 


Dainty. 


Pleading. 


Nauseous. 


Delicate. 


Pleasing. 


Offensive. 


Delicious. 


Poetical. 


Oppressive. 


Delightful. 


Kedolent. 


Philistinism. 


Divine. 


Seductive. 


Prosaic. 


Enchanting. 


Soul. 


Bepulsive. 


Engaging. 


Spiritual. 


Kevolting. 


Entertaining. 


Splendid. 


Tedious. 


Ethereal. 


Stimulating. 


Tiresome. 


Exquisite. 


Stinging. 


Ugly. 


Facetious. 


Suavity. 




Fascinating. 


Taste. 




Fine. 


ThrilKng. 




Flavor. 







The terms which have been hitherto classified represent 
active qualities or principles, which tend to differentiate 
literature into its component parts, and to give to each 
part a more or less distinct valuation. The terms of the 
present list, on the contrary, tend to express the unified 
artistic effect which the literary work produces upon the 



844 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS, 

iiimd of the reader. They indicate a complete acceptance 
of the literary work, or else they denote a complete re- 
jection of it. !No qualitative distinctions are set up. The 
aesthetic term as predicate, and the literary work as sub- 
ject, are by definition coextensive and identical. In actual 
criticism, however, this identity is often by no means 
complete; and this variation, together with the changing 
limits of literary art itself, give the two points of view 
from which the history of the different terms may be 
traced. 

XXIII. ELEMENTARY ARTISTIC TERMS. 



Architectonics. 


Imagination. 


Conceit. 


Imitation. 


Constructive. 


Ingenious. 


Creative. 


Insight. 


Design. 


Invention. 


Device. 


Mimetic. 


Fancy. 


Original. 


Fantasy. 


Selection. 


Genius. 


Wit. 


Ideality. 





All critical terms, in so far as they are critical, except, 
perhaps, those of the preceding list, refer more or less 
directly to the active process of construction in composi- 
tion, to the mental capacities by which any given form 
of literature is rendered possible. Many of these terms, 
however, do not refer to processes that are elementary. 
Thus, humor and pathos presuppose the exercise of the 
ideal making power of the mind. Many critical terms, 
also, such as ^^ proportion" and ^^ simplicity,'' are usually 
thought of as characterizing the literary work when con- 
vsidered as a completed product. Hence they tend to be- 



APPENDIX. 345 

come more or less subject to fixed rules, by the application 
of which it is supposed the qualities of literature desig- 
nated by the terms can always be attained. In this man- 
ner the process ceases to be elementary. 

It is not claimed that the list of terms given above is 
a complete one, or even a representative one. After all 
the critical terms had been classified, as far as possible, 
according to their historical rise and development, certain 
terms remained, which represent some of the more pri- 
mary activities of the mind that are brought into exercise 
in the production of literature. These terms constitute 
the present list, and in a sense they indicate the evolu- 
tion of the fundamental artistic processes which has taken 
place during the different periods of English criticism. 



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